Columbia College Today

Doctors for Designated Driving

Howie Forman ’01 (left) with Lynn Swann, NFL Hall of Famer, broadcaster and chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, at the Republican National Convention in New York in September.

Howie Forman ’01, a third-year medical school student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has founded a national organization to promote designated drivers. Doctors for Designated Driving is not only working to raise awareness of the importance of having a designated driver when out drinking alcohol, but also is enlisting businesses that serve alcohol to offer free non-alcoholic drinks or other incentives to designated drivers.

“You hear, ‘Let’s have a designated driver,’ or you might see a TV spot, but nobody has taken it to the level of sporting venues, bars and restaurants,” says Raymond Scalettar ’50, a physician who advises DFDD.

The idea of incentives is not new — Forman knew of the free-sodas policy at the stadium of his hometown NFL team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for example — but DFDD is the first concentrated effort to expand and publicize a program to promote designated driving through uniform incentives.

“It’s about making designated drivers a part of the culture,” Forman says. “Our overall message is we’re not anti-alcohol and anti-going out and having a good time. We’re pro-safety for the drivers, pedestrians and everyone else on the road.” Other Columbians involved in the organization include Aileen Love ’95, Dan Machleder ’98 and Kate Devine ’02.

Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans ages 5–35, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2002, one-third of the drivers who died in a crash were intoxicated; that percentage goes up to half for fatally-injured drivers between 21–40, according to the DOT. Annually throughout the past decade, an average of 25,000 Americans died in alcohol-related car crashes; that’s about one every 20 minutes.

Forman, who ran the Great Columbia Smoke Out while an undergrad, is the only student serving on the American Medical Association’s Action Team on Alcohol and Health. Last year, he started a program at Albert Einstein where med students go to Bronx high schools to talk to students about alcohol abuse. In July, he was invited to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress at the inaugural meeting of the STOP DUI caucus and he recently was added as a member of the National Commission Against Drunk Driving.

DFDD has reached agreements with several restaurants and bars to join the effort and publicize their support of designated driving and offer driver incentives. The organization is in discussions with TEAM Coalition — an alliance of professional sports leagues and teams, entertainment facilities, concessionaires, the beer industry, broadcasters, governmental traffic safety experts and others working to promote responsible drinking and positive behavior at sports and entertainment facilities — to institute a uniform policy at minor league sports venues. After securing agreements with the minor leagues, the organization hopes to move on to the majors.
“I think that the most important strategy here is sports, because the [people involved] are the people who set trends,” Forman says.

Shira Boss-Bicak ’93

Health professionals can sign a petition supporting DFDD at www.designateddriving.com.

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Doctors for Designated Driving