As a continuing effort of the Richland County DUI Task Force to confront and reduce deadly drinking and driving, Free Ride Tokens with Sidney Shuttle were given to all Law Enforcement in Richland County as well as a few establishments that provide alcoholic beverages. These tokens were made available to ensure that anyone who was impaired would have an available option to get home safe this holiday season. The project ran from Dec. 23, 2015, to Jan. 3, 2016 and decreased DUI’s by 42.85%.
Don Smies, Coordinator of the Richland County DUI Task Force worked with Sidney Shuttle to provide a safe option. 880 ride tokens were provided with 501 of those being given to those that may have needed a safe ride home. 82 tokens were used during this time with 134 folks receiving a safe, free ride home. As part of the result, there were only 4 DUIs this holiday season, where last year there were 7, a positive response. We would like to sincerely thank all of those involved in this project. With this success we hope to add more establishments this year, as funds allow.
Please contact Mr. Smies if you are interested in contributing financially to this program, or if your establishment would like to participate in the token projects this coming year. The total cost of this program was $1425.86, which was raised over the last year by a gun raffle, donations and other fundraising activities by the DUI Task Force. No County funds were used.
If you are interested in being involved with the DUI Task Force into the future, please contact Don Smies at 433-2207or email at [email protected]. Anyone in the community that is interested is encouraged to come to the quarterly meetings and to participate as you would like. Together we can make a difference.
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