Here’s how the government is using Taylor Swift to help prevent car crashes

It’s probably best not to “shake off” these driving safety tips.

The Iowa Department of Transportation has turned to American pop idol Taylor Swift in an effort to get people to stop looking at their phones while driving.

The singer’s new song, “Look What You Made Me Do,” has a standout lyric where Swift reads out a message: “I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? 'Cos she's dead.”

The line spread rapidly across social media and resulted in hundreds of jokes and memes.

Instead of the original lyric, signs stationed around Iowa highways now say, “Old Taylor can’t come to the phone...she’s driving.”

It’s part of the Zero Fatalities campaign, which aims to eliminate all traffic deaths in the state. In 2016, 404 people were killed on Iowa highways, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation, and as many as 40,000 across the U.S., according to the National Safety Council.

“In Iowa, using your phone to do anything but talk or navigate is illegal. But that doesn’t mean those ‘legal’ uses are safe,” the DOT wrote in a release about the signs.

The signs usually display messages about crashes, highway closures or other information, but can be configured to display other messages as well.

Iowa is actually known for being a little cheeky with those messages. In previous years, they’ve referenced pop culture icons like Star Wars and Pokemon too.

This story was originally published October 3, 2017 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Here’s how the government is using Taylor Swift to help prevent car crashes."