Erie County will unroll a program today aimed at getting potential drunken drivers – and their cars – home safely.
Under the pilot program, the county will work with Designated Drivers of Buffalo to supply professional drivers who will transport intoxicated patrons home from bars and restaurants in their own vehicles.
And it will use donations from beer distributors and other donors to pick up a portion of the tab.
The goal is to raise awareness of programs designed to curb drunken driving and to encourage participating bars and restaurants to train their employees to properly serve customers.
“The idea behind this is not simply to provide a ride home for someone,” said John Sullivan, director of Erie County STOP-DWI Office. “It’s a way of integrating good alcohol service policies into the day-to-day management of a … bar or restaurant.”
Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz and the County Legislature have authorized the use of up to $19,000 in donations that the STOP-DWI Office had left over from a previous program. The money will be used to partner with Designated Drivers of Buffalo and up to 20 bars and restaurants in a test run of the program this year.
The latest initiative will be similar to a program run by the county until 2008 that provided taxi vouchers to patrons who were too drunk to drive. That program, however, became unmanageable for the county office because of turnover in the taxi industry and the difficulty of coordinating with different taxi drivers who weren’t always aware of the program.
Since then, an Amherst-based company, Designated Drivers of Buffalo, started offering a service in Western New York that sends out two uniformed drivers to pick up customers and drive them home in the customers’ own cars. The two drivers then return in a separate vehicle.
“We feel like we’re providing a service where there’s really no excuse now,” said Michael Mule, who started Designated Drivers of Buffalo in 2008 after working for years in the hospitality industry and hearing intoxicated patrons make excuses for why they needed to drive their own vehicles home.
Often, he said, it was as simple as not wanting to leave a car because it was needed for work the next day.
Mule’s company charges a flat fee of between $25 to $30 to pick up the customer and between $2.50 to $3 for each mile after that to transport him or her home, depending on whether the customer is a member of the service.
Under the new county program, the STOP-DWI Office will use the donated funds to purchase vouchers that will cover the cost of the flat fee. Those will be given to participating bars and restaurants to give to intoxicated patrons.
The customer will pay the cost of the mileage rate.
“The whole idea is that everybody pays a little,” Sullivan said. “That’s an important aspect of it.”
Bars and restaurants involved in the program also will pay a fee, and in exchange will get TIPS training for their servers, which instructs employees how to serve alcohol responsibly and how to intervene to prevent problems such as drunken driving or underage drinking. Those establishments also will get a certain number of Designated Drivers vouchers to give to patrons who are too intoxicated to drive.
County officials estimate that the cost of a ride under Designated Drivers of Buffalo would typically be less than the cost of two taxi rides – one home and one to return to pick up the vehicle the next day.
No taxpayer funds will be used on the new program. Donations that have been set aside in a reserve account since 2008 came from a number of sources, including local beer distributors, the Erie County Restaurant Association and the Erie County Police Chiefs Association.
Sullivan said the county will not have access to information about individuals who use the service.
“I don’t know of too many other places around the country that have a program like this,” said Deanna Russo, founder and executive director of Crusade Against Impaired Driving. “The fact that the county is helping, distributors are helping to fund it – it’s everyone working together to make sure the roads are safer, which in the end is the most important thing.”
