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Creative Campaigns Hope to Curb Holiday Drunk Driving

By Christopher Coble, Esq. on December 21, 2016 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

It's fine to celebrate the holidays with a little drink, but no one wants a drunk driver ruining their holiday celebrations. And cops know better than most how dangerous drinking and driving can be. Perhaps that's why they crack down on DUIs during the holiday season and they're getting especially creative this year.

Here's a look at three unique ideas for keeping drunk drivers off the roads this year.

Deifying the DD

"We made a very tactical turn this year," Kurt Erickson of the Washington Regional Alcohol Program told WTKR in Norfolk, Virginia. "[We're trying to] emphasize the positivity and the beauty of a designated driver."

WRAP partnered with the Virginia State Police to release a series of ads as part of its Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign, showing how "beautiful" it is to get a sober ride home from the bar.

"Once There's Drinking, There's No More Thinking."

"If it weren't for alcohol and drugs, we could almost shut down the trauma center," said Jackson Memorial Hospital's Dr. Nicholas Namias during a press conference in Miami.

Namias spoke as part of a campaign to raise awareness for holiday DUIs, as one piece of partnership between the hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the Florida Highway Patrol. Highway patrol officers even staged recreations of a rollover accident, complete with crash dummies being ejected from the vehicle.

There's an App for That

Students and professors from Worcester Polytechnic Institute are hoping an innovative new app will keep drunk drivers off the road. AlcoGait can measure your sober way of walking as a baseline, then measure how much you're staggering after a few drinks. Enough swaying and a warning will pop up on your phone letting you know you're buzzed. No word on whether the app will automatically hail you a ride home as well.

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