Traffic crashes are the number one killer of employees across the nation and cost employers almost $55 billion in 1994. Impaired driving is a factor in 41 percent of these crashes.

Employers across the country need to be aware that reducing impaired driving is an effective way of cutting health care costs. Employers incur costs for injuries caused by traffic crashes through medical care, lost productivity, replacement, re-assigning and re-training, property damage, motor vehicle liability, and wage premiums. Because the cost of injury is so high, protecting employees from motor vehicle crash injury on and off the job can be a profitable investment of time and resources for any employer. Steps to reduce impaired driving benefit the employer, the employee, and the community. A safe community is a productive and healthy community.

3D Prevention Month offers a good opportunity for employers to work collaboratively with others in their communities to reduce impaired driving. Employers need to be educated that impaired driving affects employees who are drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. In addition, impaired riding is involved in over 42 percent of all motorcycle fatalities. If employees ride motorcycles to and from work, or for recreational purposes, they need to be aware that drinking and riding do not go together. Many employers have not traditionally been involved in encouraging traffic safety and reducing impaired driving among their employees. Consider the following ideas as you begin planning 3D Prevention Month and year-round events and make employers and business part of your Safe Community.

Ideas for 3D Prevention Month Activities:

• Work with Chambers of Commerce to get information out to the business community. A corporate guide with state laws and "mocktail" recipes can be developed and distributed to companies planning holiday parties. Various American Automobile Association (AAA) clubs have held mocktail drink contests and published recipes in their newsletters.
• Contact hotel and motel owners to use their shuttles and offer free rides during the holidays to party-goers.
• Enlist the support of local taxi cab companies to provide free rides to impaired individuals. In Norfolk, Virginia, and Washington, DC, successful programs have included posters and tickets with messages encouraging a bar patron to let the bartender call them a cab from a particular company. These programs are actively publicized by local media and subsidized by other business partners within the community. The cab company receives free publicity and provides the service of a safe ride home at no charge to the customer.
• Enlist media support for activities being planned by employers to reduce impaired driving. Although the media do not have a direct link to serving alcohol or providing transportation, the media do have a direct link to the public. Their support for programs that reduce impaired driving will be invaluable.

Year-Round Activities:

• Employee volunteers can work a Designated Driver Booth at an athletic arena where alcohol is served. This includes football games, baseball games, concerts, etc. Offer benefit incentives to employees who do this on behalf of your local organization.
• Publicize safe driving messages from the President/CEO before holiday times. The President/CEO message can be included in a letter to employees, a pay check stuffer, or a company newsletter.
• Sponsor a project in the local high schools that involves employers in an effort to eliminate impaired driving on prom night, homecoming, and other times of the year when student social functions take place.
• Begin a Responsible Hospitality Council (RHC) in your community. In Lincoln, Nebraska, an RHC hosted a Community Forum to address Birthday Bar Crawls in the downtown district of Lincoln. Birthday Bar Crawls occurred when an individual celebrating a birthday went from bar to bar accepting his or her free birthday drink. As a result, 37 bars signed a cooperative agreement designed to end this practice.
• Encourage employers to collaborate with other civic organizations, such as Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID), Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), AAA, National Safety Council, etc., on implementing traffic safety programs.
• Support a combination of efforts by employers and colleges or universities. "Buzzing and Tooling" is a program housed at the University of Northern Colorado that is working to decrease the prevalence of impaired driving among young blue collar workers within the community through the use of adult learning concepts and behavior change strategies. Early evaluation results indicate that impaired driving is decreasing among focus group participants.

Successful Alcohol and Impaired Driving Program Atlanta, Georgia, Takes a Stand
A local community coalition centered around sporting events, called TEAM Georgia, was established in Atlanta. The Georgia Dome, a sports facility that seats 77,000 fans and serves as home for the Atlanta Falcons, gave TEAM Georgia the opportunity to sell advertising to sponsors of seven booth locations. In addition to companies that sponsor a booth, other businesses can purchase t-shirts for booth volunteers and buttons or identification bracelets for designated drivers and can provide volunteers from their organization to attend training and staff their booths.

How do I get employers involved?
Encourage employers in your community to apply one of the ideas described above. For more information on these programs, contact your National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Regional Office. Office addresses are listed in the Resources section of this Program Planner and are available on the NHTSA home page at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/whatis/regions.

Other ideas for programs and activities for employers in your community are available through the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS). NETS produces seasonal planners four times a year that provide copy for employee newsletters, camera-ready artwork, and program ideas. NETS can also provide assistance through 27 state chapters across the country. For more information about NETS, you may browse their home page at www.trafficsafety.org or contact their office at:

Network of Employers for Traffic Safety

1900 L Street, NW

Suite 705

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: (202) 452-6005

Fax: (202) 223-7012