By James FitzPatrick
Contributing Writer
What if you could give your friends and family a holiday gift that is as fun as a night on the town, costs almost nothing, yet is as precious as life itself?
It’s easy. All it takes is a few clicks online and a commitment to take the HERO Designated Driver Pledge.
It’s the season when social calendars are packed with happy gatherings that often involve the consumption of alcohol. People will be drinking beer for the Eagles vs. Cowboys on Christmas Eve, wine and eggnog at Mom’s Christmas dinner, or champagne at the neighborhood New Year’s Eve party. Celebrations can turn into tragedy if the participants fail to plan ahead for their transportation, or make poor choices about who’s drinking and who’s driving.
According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), crashes involving an impaired driver killed 937 people in December 2020 alone. Nationwide, drunk driving-involved crashes kill more than 11,000 people each year.
In all of 2021, 697 people were killed in traffic crashes in New Jersey; 125 of those fatalities were due to a drunk driver, according to the state Division Highway Traffic Safety. By getting behind the wheel while alcohol or drug impaired, you risk lives, not to mention arrest and severe penalties which can include loss of license, heavy fines, and even imprisonment.
The good news is, the story doesn’t have to end that way. Lives can be saved when people make good choices and there’s plenty of support available for those who are willing to make a small sacrifice to ensure their safety and the safety of others.
In South Jersey, and growing throughout the region, is a movement to make drunk and impaired driving a thing of the past, and designated drivers as automatic as wearing a seatbelt.
Most area residents have probably heard of the HERO Campaign. It was launched in 2000 after the tragic death of Navy Ensign John R. Elliott of Egg Harbor Township, who was killed by a drunk driver just two months after his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy. HERO was created by his parents, Bill and Muriel Elliott, who were determined to turn their tragedy into an opportunity to help others.
The centerpiece of the HERO Campaign is the HERO Designated Driver Pledge. Anyone can take it at herocampaign.org. It states:
“I pledge to be a HERO by being a safe and sober Designated Driver for my friends and family.”
Taking the pledge generates a digital ID card, which is honored by more than 50 local restaurants, bars and taverns in Atlantic and Cape May counties by providing free, nonalcoholic beverages for designated drivers. Some places even offer mocktails or HEROtinis as a reward to designated drivers for their willingness to forgo some revelry to make the world safer. To date HERO has certified approximately 200,000 pledges.
Sober means “a non-drinking driver. Not someone who’s just under the legal limit,” said Bill Elliott, father of John R. Elliott and CEO of The John R. Elliott Foundation. Just because a driver is below the legal blood alcohol level of .08 doesn’t mean they’re not impaired, according to the NHTSA, which notes that a blood alcohol reading as low as .02 can still cause a decline in visual function and the ability to perform two tasks at the same time.
Elliott noted that HERO will be active over the holidays with a TV, radio and print advertising campaign through New Year’s Day, reminding the public not to drink and drive, and to always have or be designated drivers.
HERO, which is headquartered at Stockton University, is constantly looking for new ways to spread its message through programs at high schools and colleges, distributing thousands of car badges, partnering with professional sports teams and Clear Channel, a major outdoor advertising agency.
It also works with law enforcement to deliver the message. So far, 11 local police departments have had one of their vehicles wrapped with the HERO brand and message: “Be a HERO. Be a Designated Driver.” It holds a HERO Walk and 5K on the Ocean City Boardwalk every year, partners with taxi and ridesharing services, and provides victim advocacy for families of DWI accident victims. It recently added distracted driving to its driver safety message.
“We also are contacting area high schools to offer them our new HERO DWI simulator, featured at our October HERO Walk, which teaches students the perils of drinking and distracted driving using a video-game-like virtual driving experience,” Elliott said.
If being a holiday hero isn’t incentive enough to motivate drivers to do the right thing, maybe fear of getting caught will.
Police departments from New Jersey and across the country are participating in Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, a program originated by the NHTSA, to help states fund stepped-up local police patrols. In New Jersey it’s run through the office of Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the Division of Highway Traffic Safety. It’s under way now and runs through Jan. 1.
The state has awarded more than $600,00 in grants to 98 police agencies to fund high-visibility sobriety checkpoints and patrols during the month of December. Local police departments receiving funds include Absecon, Brigantine, Galloway, Hamilton, Hammonton, Linwood, Mullica, Northfield, Pleasantville and Ventnor.
Although Egg Harbor Township did not receive a grant and is not doing checkpoints, it is devoting extra resources from the Drunk Driving Enforcement Fund to pay for roving DWI patrols to deter intoxicated driving and to keep the roads safer over the holidays, said Sgt. Edward Stearns of the Egg Harbor Township Police Department Traffic Safety Unit.
So far in 2022, EHTPD has arrested 96 people for driving under the influence and has responded to 39 crashes related to DWIs. Stearns said DWI arrests are running about the same as in 2021, but DWI-related crashes are down about 26 percent.
“We are hoping the decline in DWI-related crashes has some relationship with either the use of designated drivers, public transportation, or ride-share applications,” he told Shore Local News.
If you become intoxicated the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over program advises to take mass transit, a taxi, rideshare service or ask a sober friend to drive you home. Or, see if you can spend the night where the activity or party is held.
With the holidays upon us, EHTPD is reminding the public not to risk their lives or the lives of others by driving under the influence. The bottom line is there are lots of things that people can do to keep the township’s 300 miles of local roads safe.
“Plan to spend the night where the event occurs, designate someone to be a sober driver, or use ridesharing companies and other means of public transportation,” Stearns said. “Ultimately, if you are planning to drink or use impairing substances, please do not drive.”
