RSOs band together to prevent drinking and driving

Josh Holderbaum
Western Herald

One person dies every 15 minutes in an alcohol-related accident; a statistic three Registered Student Organizations at Western Michigan University want to reverse.

Drive Safe Kalamazoo, the Public Relations Organization and the Western Student Association are holding “Safe Rides Week” to raise awareness about the dangers of driving while intoxicated.

“It’s almost hard to judge a single goal for this, but we want to show that there are so many alternatives to driving drunk,” Josh Weaver, PRO vice president, said.

DSK members presented the idea for the week at the Safe Ride Programs United Conference at Texas A&M University earlier this year, making WMU the first university to hold Safe Rides Week, Weaver said.

Activities started Tuesday with an “every fifteen minutes” demonstration, which involved red-shirted DSK members as victims carrying signs around campus detailing how they died. One person was added every 15 minutes throughout the day.

The Safe Rides Festival will be held all day Wednesday, Sept. 9 near the fountain in Miller Plaza. The event will feature root beer, “mocktinis,” beer goggle bicycle races and an accurate shot-pouring competition, which Weaver said is almost impossible.

DSK volunteers will also hold a mock car crash Thursday at 12:45 p.m. near the flagpoles.

The week isn’t intended to scare students into not drinking and driving, but the mock car crash does come close to that, Weaver said.

“It’s educational, but it’s also real life,” Weaver said. “This is a possible consequence of drinking and driving.”

The week concludes with Bronco Bash on Friday, with volunteers asking students to sign a pledge to not drink and drive. The three RSOs hope to target both returning students and freshmen with the week.

“A lot of freshmen don’t know about DSK,” Weaver said. “We want to make sure everyone understands what DSK does. The point of DSK isn’t to ban drinking, it’s to provide alternatives to drinking and driving.”

While Weaver knows that everyone will not attend all the events, but hopes the word will get out from those who do come.

“This isn’t a single person’s work, it’s a community effort,” Weaver said. “If you come to the Safe Rides Festival but your friend doesn’t, when you go back to your dorm you’ll have a ping-pong ball with DSK’s number on it. So you might be only person who goes, but in three weeks word will spread and a dozen people will know about it.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Sep 8 2009. Filed under Campus, Local, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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