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 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 on the program.

Advocacy groups

Various college and high school organizations, such as 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 and RamRide at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, 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

This section needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (August 2008)

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. 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. 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. Drivers Incorporated, of Washington DC, has used foldable bikes for the last mile of transportation, to and from public transportation.

References

1. ^ "CHEERS General FAQ's". University of Missouri-Columbia. http://wellness.missouri.edu/CHEERS/faq.html. Retrieved 2009-06-24. 
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/books?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. 

External links

• HERO Campaign