Education Campaign Urges Party-Goers to Choose Sober Rides
The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) is providing federal funding to law enforcement agencies throughout the state for high visibility DUI enforcement this holiday period. DUI enforcement will reinforce the message to bar-goers to plan for a safe ride home. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently announced 2011 figures showing that the state’s DUI deaths remained unchanged from 2010. While the number remains at a 67 year record low, the 774 deaths that did occur are unacceptable.
This year’s enforcement efforts include a new addition to the popular “RUOK?” anti-drunk driving campaign, which aims to reinforce the message that if you have to ask someone if they are okay to drive, they are probably not.
The “RUOK?” campaign emphasizes the importance of safe and sober rides. The campaign takes aim at popular nightlife areas in four major cities throughout the state: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Diego. “Wrapped” cars which are made to look like law enforcement cruisers in the front and taxi cabs in the rear will be placed in high-traffic areas every weekend during the crackdown. Each car will be accompanied by a street team that will distribute materials that highlight rides home that are both normal – taxi, sober friend – and ridiculous – pirate ships and giant chickens. This effort, which helps to support the ongoing “RUOK?” campaign launched in 2011, highlights that no matter how ridiculous the ride may be, as long as it is a safe and sober ride, it is the right choice. These materials also include a QR code linking users to a GPS-enabled cab-finder mobile website, which they can use to search for a nearby cab.
The street teams will also encourage people to actively engage in campaign efforts via a “Not Driving” Instagram contest, another new element of this year’s campaign effort. Participants are asked to follow OTS on Instagram, upload photos that demonstrate their safe ride home, and add a “not driving,” caption and a #RUOK hashtag. Contest winners can receive taxi ride vouchers, donated by Taxi Magic, its participating fleets and other OTS partners.
For more information on the RUOK? campaign or the wrapped cars, please visit the OTS Facebook at www.facebook.com/CaliforniaOTS or follow OTS on Twitter @OTS_CA. For more information on all OTS efforts, visit www.OTS.ca.gov .