New Jersey is trying to make safe driving videos cool again (if they ever were) by featuring Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things in its upcoming road safety public safety videos, Page Six reports.
The news, while undoubtedly exciting for driving instructors who are sick of teens making fun of the educational VHS tapes from the '80s — you know the ones I'm talking about — is a bit surprising, since Matarazzo is still a year away from legally being allowed to obtain a student learner's permit in the Garden State.
Also noteworthy is the fact that the actor recently teamed up with Kelly Clarkson for a fun — yet completely dangerous! — WE Day video in which he drove her around in a golf cart while singing his heart out. If that's not distracted driving, I don't know what is.
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But who cares about details so long as you can have arguably the coolest character out of Hawkins telling youths about the dangers of texting and driving? (Mouthbreathers, that's who.)
According to Page Six, Matarazzo's videos will air at Jersey high schools and cover important topics such as what to do if a police officer pulls you over and why taking that selfie behind the wheel can have deadly consequences. Hopefully, he'll toss out a couple references from the Upside Down and one of those impeccable Wookiee impersonations.
Joking aside, teaching people about the dangers of distracted driving is incredibly important. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,477 people died and another 391,000 were injured in the U.S. in 2015 because either they or another driver were preoccupied by their mobile devices and weren't paying attention to the road.