Program to cut DUI fatalities considered
By Sarah Lison, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
March 8, 2010
Community members learned Friday about a program that would allow bartenders and police officers to offer free cab rides to bar and restaurant patrons who become too intoxicated to drive home.
Pitkin County, Colo., sheriff’s officer Ellen Anderson told those gathered at the Teton County Sheriff’s Office about Aspen’s Tipsy Taxi program, which helped reduce fatal crashes in Aspen and Pitkin counties from as many as seven a year before 1984 to two or less since 1987. Aspen’s program started in 1983.
Anderson said the program is funded through private donations. Although the cab rides are free to bar patrons, the taxi drivers receive a full fare, she said.
Officials are considering starting a similar program in Teton County.
Anderson described Aspen’s program as one element of a three-part strategy to reduce drunken driving.
“We’re all on the same side,” she said. “Nobody wants to get hit by a drunk driver, and nobody wants to get a DUI.”
The three parts to Aspen’s program include education, enforcement and alternatives. The Tipsy Taxi program provides the alternative by giving people a better way to get home if they’re intoxicated, Anderson said.
She said it would be appropriate for the sheriff’s office to facilitate a Teton Tipsy Taxi program because it has a stake in promoting peace in the community. The Aspen program is coordinated by the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.
Teton County Sheriff Jim Whalen asked how Aspen deals with people who think they can go bar hopping on the community’s dime.
Anderson said someone who accepts a Tipsy Taxi ride must provide their name and a street address. Taxi drivers are prohibited from taking people with Tipsy Taxi vouchers to their cars, parking lots or other bars, she said.
The taxi driver also must watch the patron walk through his or her door. If the person does not enter a home, taxi drivers are asked to call police so that there is no chance someone could wander off and possibly get hurt, she said.
Anderson said statistics show residents use the service by a three-to-one ratio compared with tourists.
“Shots happen,” Anderson said. “Sometimes people just make mistakes, and this is not a finger-pointing thing.”
She said there will be some people who will use the service frequently and that’s part of its purpose, she said.
“Some people’s behavior you can change,” Anderson said. “And some you can’t.”
