SUMMER PARTIES PLANNER – DESIGNATED DRIVER
SAMPLE NEWS RELEASE

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: [Date]
CONTACT: [Name, Phone Number, E-mail]

Plan Before You Party This Summer
Don’t Forget to Designate a Sober Driver

[Local Leader/Organization] announced today [it/they] are joining with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and other federal, state and local highway safety and law enforcement officials across the nation to aggressively remind anyone planning on using alcohol this summer to always Plan Before You Party – Don’t Forget to Designate a Sober Driver.

“The ‘100 Days of Summer’ represent one of the most dangerous and deadliest times of the year on the nation’s roadways,” said [Local Leader]. “One big reason is the significant jump in the number of alcohol-related traffic crashes and fatalities.”

[Local Leader] said the increase in alcohol use throughout the summer, and particularly around major holiday weekends, beginning with Memorial Day, continuing through the 4th of July and ending with Labor Day, has made the summer season a very grim time for local law enforcement, emergency medical staff, highway safety officials and the friends and families of alcohol-related crash victims.

“That’s why our goal this summer is to remind everyone, whether they are heading out to the beach, the lake or the mountains, to their favorite summer concert, to the ballpark, or just going to a barbecue or picnic with friends, if they plan on using alcohol, they need to designate a sober driver before they get started,” [Local Leader] said.

[He/she] also offered the following tips for a safer summer season:

• Designate your sober driver before going out;
  
  
• If drinking alcohol, don’t even think about driving when impaired – and never let your friends drive if you think they are impaired; remember, Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk.
  
  
• Drink lots of water during your activities to avoid dehydration, and don’t drink alcohol on an “empty stomach”;
  
  
• When impaired, ask a sober friend for a ride home, use mass transit, call a cab or your local sober rides program, (if your community has a local sober rides program, insert the information and phone number here);
  
  
• Ask a friend or family member to come get you, or just stay where you are and sleep it off until you are sober;
  
  
• And, of course, always remember to wear your safety belt. It is still your single best defense against death or injury in a crash.

Impaired driving is one of America’s deadliest problems. Nationally, more than 17,000 people died in alcohol-related highway crashes during 2003. Every 30 minutes, nearly 50 times a day, someone in America dies in an alcohol-related crash, and more than 300,000 are injured each year. According to NHTSA, about three in every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some point in their lives.

Driving impaired or riding with someone who is impaired is simply not worth the risk because the consequences are serious and real. Not only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for driving while impaired can be really significant.

“Driving impaired is simply not worth any of the pain you can cause yourself or someone else,” [Local Leader] said. Please remember to Plan Before You Party This Summer – Don’t Forget to Designate a Sober Driver.”

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