20th Safe & Sober Planner Operation ABC You Drink & Drive. You Lose. Call To Action Activities Guide Table of Contents Introduction How to Plan and Conduct National Events Community and Civic Law Enforcement Medical and Health Care Educators and Schools Employers Prosecutors and Judges Armed Forces A Dozen Great Ideas! Media Outreach Sample Media Materials Sample Proclamation Ideas for Year-Round Driving Efforts 3D Prevention Month Coalition 3D Prevention Month Grantss Resources Available Tell Us About It! Fact Sheets Program Brochure Resource Guide

The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety suggests the following "Ideas to Try" for incorporating anti-impaired driving messages and strategies into your company’s wellness and other employee programs:

1. Review and, if necessary, modify your company’s hiring and retention policies and procedures regarding on-the-job substance use and impaired driving.
2. If you serve alcohol at your office party, there are things you can do to help control the amount consumed and prevent employees from driving impaired:
   • Distribute free taxi passes permitting an employee to ride home after the party and back to work the next day in a cab.
   • Encourage employees or their spouses to sign up as non-drinking designated drivers before the party. At the party, give a small prize to designated drivers and/or employees riding with a designated driver.
   • Limit the number of alcoholic beverages employees consume by giving each employee a set number of tickets which are the only means of obtaining alcoholic beverages.
   • Designate an employee to monitor employee drinking and assist anyone who has become impaired and needs transportation.
   • Never serve alcohol to anyone under 21.
3. Encourage employees to join your community in recognizing "Lights On For Life." Ask employees to drive with their headlights on all day on Friday, December 17, 1999, to remember those who have been killed or injured in alcohol-related crashes.
4. Participate in Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s (MADD) "Tie One On For Safety" campaign by encouraging your employees to tie red ribbons on their car antennas to show that they are safe and sober drivers. For more information, contact your local chapter or state office of MADD.
5. Always remember to promote traffic safety messages in employee newsletters, bulletin boards and signs, such as "drive courteously" and "buckle up." Remember, your best defense against an impaired driver is wearing your seat belt.

For more information on these issues, contact:

Network of Employers for Traffic Safety
1900 L Street NW, Suite 705
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202/452-6005
Fax: 202/223-7012
Web: www.trafficsafety.org

Here are some other ideas that employers have used to successfully incorporate 3D Prevention Month into their employee programs:

• Serve "mocktails" and non-alcoholic drinks at holiday parties. Have a contest to see who can create the best recipe. Publish the top entries in your employee newsletter.
• Pass out red ribbons and information on 3D Prevention Month in payroll envelopes on or near the first of December.
• Hold random seat belt checks at factory gates or entrances to employee parking lots. Give away premiums or coupons to employees who are buckled up.
• Develop a "I Won’t Drink and Drive" pledge campaign. Give a prize to any division that has 100 percent participation. Put all pledge cards into a drawing for a fun prize like use of the CEO’s parking space for a month.
• Publicize seat belt survivors and other positive stories in employee newsletters or intranets.
• Make anti-impaired driving messages key in CEO statements to employees in December (research shows that concern and direction from the top is the most effective way to reach employees).
• Make sure that any employee who wants help with a substance abuse or alcohol problem can find out more information easily and privately. Those who take the first step themselves have the greatest chance of succeeding, so make that first step easier for them.
• If you have an Employee Assistance Program, review its substance abuse counseling and rehabilitation services referrals.
• Provide office space, executive loans, financial support and in-kind donations to local highway safety organizations. Offer to host coalition meetings and in other ways make your local nonprofit highway safety community feel welcome in your workplace.
• Invite highway safety groups to participate in employee health education fairs. Make your health events a family affair with programs and events that also include children.
• Incorporate a safe and sober holiday message into your December advertising.
• If your CEO or other top executive has a personal experience with alcohol or substance abuse (either as a recovering alcoholic or addict, an impaired driver, or the victim of an impaired driver), encourage him or her to share the story with employees and let them see that solutions are right at hand and that people can succeed despite past tragedies.