Feature
December
30
Have a Safe New Year’s Celebration by Using a Designated Driver
by Jamie Ainsworth
As the designated driver program reaches its 22nd anniversary in 2010, Louisiana highway safety officials are urging partygoers to take necessary steps in advance of New Year’s Eve celebrations to avoid driving while impaired.
Such steps can include having a non-drinking designated driver, arranging taxi rides, reserving overnight hotel rooms where celebrations take place and using public buses or other means of transportation.
Alcohol was a factor in 48 percent of the highway crash deaths that occurred in Louisiana in 2009.
“Your chances of avoiding a serious crash on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day are greatly improved if you don’t drink and drive or ride with someone who hasn’t been drinking,” said Lt. Col. John LeBlanc, executive director of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission. “Perhaps more than other holidays, New Year’s Eve celebrations often involve alcohol consumption. The designated driver program and Tipsy Taxi are only two of the popular programs that partygoers can participate in to avoid driving while impaired.”
The designated driver program has come into widespread use in the United States and other countries since being developed by the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Health Communication in cooperation with major Hollywood studios and television networks. Since the first designated driver campaign was launched in 1988, the program has grown across the United States and numerous other countries.
When the designated driver program was launched in 1988, alcohol-related crash fatalities nationwide stood at more than 27,000. Twenty years later, in 2008, there were nearly 12,000 alcohol-related crash fatalities in the U.S.-a reduction of 56.8 percent. During that same period all traffic deaths fell by 20.8 percent. Numerous anti-drunk driving efforts including stricter enforcement, tougher laws, increasing public awareness and designated driver campaigns have been implemented over the past few decades.
In Louisiana, a total of 20 people were killed in crashes during the New Year’s holiday over the past five years, with 75 percent of these deaths involving alcohol.
Nationally, during the 2009 New Year’s holiday, 468 people were killed in crashes according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of these fatalities, 40 percent were killed in crashes that involved a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or greater.
