The Designated Drivers Association (DDA) is a non-profit organization that organizes teams of volunteers to provide impaired drivers with a free ride home for both them and their vehicles. DDA recognized that many people didn’t avail themselves of other designated driver programs because it would require a morning-after trip to retrieve one’s car. The DDA addressed this issue by creating a system where volunteers work as a team: one volunteer to drive the impaired person home in their own car, and the other to follow in a separate car, in order to drive the first volunteer home.
The DDA does not charge for this service (although gratuities are cheerfully accepted). The benefits of the DDA are obvious: by removing the chief objection to other designated driver programs, and rendering the services free of charge, the DDA encourages impaired drivers to stay off of the road at no inconvenience to themselves.
DUI LAWS recognizes this innovative effort by the DDA, and is committed to working closely with the Designated Drivers Association to help them spread their free service throughout the United States. DUI LAWS will continue to support the DDA by inviting them to participate in any DUI LAWS events. Since both DUI LAWS and the DDA aim to help decrease the number of alcohol related arrests and accidents, it’s a natural fit for both organizations to work together.
The DDA’s goals are:
Increase public awareness of the dangers of driving while impaired.
Educate people about the positive choices they can make concerning impaired driving.
Reduce the number of impaired drivers on the roads and highways thus preventing injuries, deaths and saving the community millions of dollars.
Further understanding of the DDA- a positive, proactive, unique alternative to impaired driving.
Establish a Scholarship Fund – to help children whose lives have been affected by DUI tragedies.
These are laudable goals. Qualified lawyers are not lobbying on behalf of the impaired driver when they support DDA. Rather, the skilled defense lawyer exists for the sole purpose of ensuring that no person is convicted unless the government meets its burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If someone is truly impaired, they should not be driving.