Richland County law enforcement and the Safe Communities Coalition kicked off the national ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over’ campaign on Saturday at Der Dutchman restaurant’s mini-golf golf course in Bellville. “We’re trying to deliver a serious message,” stated Reed Richmond of Richland Public Health, “but we want to have fun with it. If you can’t do something as easy as mini-golf [while drunk], how can you drive a car?”
“The idea of this whole thing is that you have to have kickoff events each year for seatbelt usage and DUI [Driving under the influence] awareness and that whole campaign. The ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over’ started yesterday and goes through Labor Day,” stated Richmond, “We’re trying to get that message out to the public about the dangers of drinking and driving.”
Teams were formed with law enforcement officers and youth to play all 18 holes of golf. The participating youth were largely participants with Community Action for Capable Youth (CACY). CACY donated Fatal Vision goggles for use at the event. The goggles simulate the level of impairment at or above the legal limit.
“Safe Communities,” said Richmond is a group of business leaders and student organizations and organizations throughout Richland County and law enforcement, and we’re all working together to try to reduce the number of crashes and fatalities.”
One of their biggest partners is CACY. CACY Director Tracee Anderson said, “It’s important to start very young with prevention and the messages. And this is also a great opportunity with the kids for law enforcement and other organizations to actually engage in a really structured way so that they [youth] see them as partners and good resources for information and that they want their safety and their health to be a primary factor for them. The kids enjoy the interaction.”
The event appeared to achieve its goal to have fun sharing the message. Ohio State Highway Patrol Mansfield Trooper Shaun Robles started his team on the first hole with a hole-in-one. But, Judy Villard-Overocker of the Ohio State University Extension Office also achieve a hole-in-one during the course of the day.
Trooper Robles team included Kayla, Julie, and Luke Brown. Kayla and Julie Brown are instructors for Car Teens.
“When teen drivers under18 get traffic citations, the judge will order them to come to CARTEENS. We have a program where we talk about distracted driving, and we talk about driving safety, and the trooper will usually come and talk. We do it once a month,” said Kayla Brown.
“We were involved in 4-H,” she added, “and the OSU Extension does 4-H and it does CARTEENS and we heard about it. The kids come in and we hopefully get to change their lives.” The sisters have been involved for two years.
OhioHealth MedCentral Mansfield was also represented. The hospital offers the only Level II trauma center in Richland County.
“I participate in Safe Communities with OhioHealth’s Trauma Center because 74 percent of all of our life threatened injured patients are related to drugs and alcohol, we want to try to spread the message throughout the county to not drink and drive,” said Laura Pond.
The golfing was all in fun, though, because all goggles are not equal. One team had googles that simulated a .25 blood alcohol level and Sheriff Deputy Gary Kiener pointed out that .08 is the legal limit. “That’s about three times the legal limit,” he noted.
Other organization and law enforcement participants included CACY Prevention Educator Tammy Funke, Bellville Police Officer Josh Frech, Mansfield Police Sgt. Ken Carroll, Richland County Sheriff Deputy Gary Kiener, volunteer Jeff Frank, Law Enforcement Liaison for Safe Communities Frank Arvay and Ohio Health MedCentral Trauma Program Manager Laura Pond.
The “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign will target drunk driving to reduce the number of drunk driver fatalities. Richmond provided some data to emphasize the need:
During the attacks on September 11, 2001 there were a total of 2,996 deaths, and we considered it a tragedy. From 2003 to 2012 we lost 4,486 Americans in Iraq, and we considered it a tragedy. And in 2012, America recorded 10,322 alcohol-related deaths on America’s highways.
“And we don’t think a lot about it,” said Richmond, Impaired driving is a tragedy. In Ohio, in 2013, we recorded 300 and deaths and 7,034 injuries related to alcohol-related crashes.”
“We’re trying to deliver a serious message,” stated Reed Richmond of Richland Public Health, “but we want to have fun with it. If you can’t do something as easy as mini-golf [while drunk], how can you drive a car?”
