Designated driver

The terms "designated driver" and "designated driving" refer to selecting a person to remain sober, as the driver of a vehicle, while others are allowed to drink to excess (with alcoholic beverages). A designated driver is a person who abstains from alcohol on a social occasion in order to drive his/her companions home safely. It is intended as a safe alternative to driving under the influence. In order to encourage these arrangements, some bar, restaurant and nightclub proprietors will offer free non-alcoholic drinks to designated drivers.^[1]

History

The designated driver concept was developed in Scandinavia over several decades beginning in the 1920s, leading to a formalized designated driver program in the 1980s.^[2]

The concept was imported to the United States on a large scale in 1988 through the Harvard Alcohol Project,^[2] an initiative by the Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Health Communication, led by Jay Winsten. With heavy involvement by television networks and Hollywood studios, the campaign popularized the concept through public service announcements, as well as the encouragement of drunk driving prevention messages and designated driver references in popular television programs,^[2] such as Cheers, L.A. Law, and The Cosby Show. The U.S. Department of Transportation used public affairs commercials with the phrase "friends don't let friends drive drunk".^[2]

President Bill Clinton participated in the designated driver campaign throughout his presidency, taping public service announcements each year at the request of the Harvard Alcohol Project.^[3][4] With the endorsement of a broad range of individuals and organizations, designated driving became a national movement, with "designated driver" becoming a common phrase. Based on several polls indicating an increase in designated driving practices since the start of the initiative, the campaign is credited as a contributing factor to the decline in alcohol-related traffic fatalities between 1988 and 1994.^[5]

In 1995, Belgium launched the Bob campaign, a drunk driving prevention program centered around the designated driver approach. The Bob campaign has since been adapted by the Netherlands and Greece.^[6]

In Brazil, since 2005, the spirits company called Diageo is using this concept to spread the message of not Drinking and Drive. Called Piloto da Vez, the program was born with the sponsorship of McLaren firmed on that year. Since than, Montoya, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton participated in the program.

Impediments

Though designated drivers are popular, groups often fail to use them properly.^[7] Often there is a failure of those groups to designate the driver prior to making travel arrangements and arrive in separate vehicles. Even when a group does share a vehicle, it is not always the case that the designated driver remains sober. Failures to require driver abstinence or limitation of consumption is another problem. One study conducted at the Tijuana/San Diego border found that by asking groups intent on drinking to identify the designated driver prior to entering the bar district, the driver later returned with substantially lower BACs compared with the control groups.^[8]

Advocacy groups

Various college and high school organizations, such as RamRide at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, CARPOOL at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, or Drive Safe Kalamazoo, at Western Michigan University and BUSY at Gulfport High School in Gulfport, Mississippi offer to give free rides home on weekend nights to fellow students. The HERO Campaign is a non-profit that promotes designated driving through partnerships with bars, restaurants, stadiums and colleges in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Businesses

United States Numerous businesses have sprouted up across the United States to help address the problem of drinking and driving. Some transport their drivers home, as passengers, using one of three methods: car, collapsible scooter, or foldable bike. These are not necessarily true designated driver programs, but instead Safe Ride programs, as the sober driver is not designated from within the natural drinking group.^[9] Designated Drivers, Inc, was founded in 1998 and later based out of Las Vegas, NV. This company has used two person teams: one person to drive the impaired individual in their own vehicle, and the other person as the follow driver. Pittsburgh's Pear Transportation Company, aka The Pear Cares, has also become well known for using the two-person team approach.^[10] NightRiders, Incorporated was the first company to use collapsible, motorized scooters in the US. The drivers drove customers home using their own vehicles, stowing a scooter in the customer's trunk (or truck). Upon arrival to the customer's destination, the driver parked the vehicle, collected the fare, assembled the scooter from the vehicle, and rode off to the next customer. This company is now out of business, according to their website. Zingo Transportation has operated this kind of service in southern US cities since 2005. Drivers Incorporated, of Washington DC, has used foldable bicycles for the last mile of transportation, to and from public transportation.

Australia

Designated driver services in Australia exist in many capital cities and regional towns. The service is in high demand due to highly regulated, unreliable taxi services ^[11]. Perth Designated Drivers are a new service operating in Perth. In Queensland, Co Drivers operate from the Sunshine Coast and One Way Driver operate from the Gold Coast. Safe Drivers, Driven Indulgence and My Driver operate out of Melbourne. Scooter Angels operate out of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and Dial-A-Driver operate in Sydney and Adelaide.

A nationally award-winning designated driver program^[12] called Who's DES Tonight? operates out of the Burnie City Council in Tasmania. This program is supported by Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes Against Drink Driving (RADD) Australia.

References

1. ^ "CHEERS General FAQ's". University of Missouri-Columbia. http://wellness.missouri.edu/CHEERS/#about. Retrieved 2011-11-08. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Greenberg, Martin Alan (2005-09-28). "7. Potential Roles for Volunteer Police Service". Citizens Defending America: From Colonial Times to the Age of Terrorism (1 ed.). University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-8229-4264-1. OCLC 57754151. http://books.google.com/?id=UbapYVQnxHsC&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198. Retrieved 2009-06-06 
3. ^ Solomon-Schwartz, Benjamin P. (1999-11-30). "Clinton Appears in Announcement Encouraging Y2K Designated Driving". The Harvard Crimson. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=98717. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
4. ^ Elliott, Stuart (1992-12-23). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS - ADVERTISING; A (Nearly) Presidential Call for Care in Holiday Imbibing". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3D71339F930A15751C1A964958260. Retrieved 2008-08-23 
5. ^ Winsten, Jay A. (2000). "The Harvard Alcohol Project: Promoting the "Designated Driver"". In Suman, Michael; Rossman, Gabriel. Advocacy Groups and the Entertainment Industry. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. pp. 3–8. doi:10.1336/0275968855. ISBN 978-0-275-96885-4 
6. ^ Cordes, Renée (2003-07-28). "Bob's the word". Expatica. http://www.expatica.com/be/life_in/feature/bobs-the-word-274.html. Retrieved 2008-08-18. 
7. ^ Fell, J., Voas, R., & Lange, J. (1997). Designated Driver Concept: Extent of Use in the USA. J Traffic Med, 25(3-4).
8. ^ Lange, J. E., Reed, M. B., Johnson, M. B., & Voas, R. B. (2006). The efficacy of experimental interventions designed to reduce drinking among designated drivers. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(2), 261-268.
9. ^ Lange, J. E., Johnson, M. B., & Reed, M. B. (2006). Drivers within natural drinking groups: An exploration of role selection, motivation, and group influence on driver sobriety. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 32, 261-274.
10. ^ Goga, Jennifer (2009-12-09). "Service caters to those too drunk to drive". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09337/1018012-55.stm. Retrieved 2009-12-09. 
11. ^ http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/latest/8469240/pre-booking-taxi-wont-beat-crowd/
12. ^ "Who's DES Tonight? Designated Driver Program". Burnie City Council. http://www.whosdestonight.com.au/awards.asp. Retrieved 2011-05-20. 

External links

• HERO Campaign
• Who's DES Tonight? Designated Driver Program in Burnie, Australia