SOURCE: Destination DC
CONTACT: PHONE:
Kurt Gregory Erickson President
W. 703-893-0461 CELL. 703-625-2303
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2018
FREE HOLIDAY LYFT RIDES OFFERED IN GREATER
WASHINGTON TO PREVENT DRUNK DRIVING SOBERRIDE PROGRAM BEGINS ON DEC. 14 AND RUNS THROUGH NEW YEAR’S
Washington, DC, December 3– Combating that holiday period when, last December, 885 people lost their lives in traffic crashes involving drunk drivers.* A local nonprofit organization announced today that free safe rides will be offered to would-be drunk drivers throughout the Washington-metropolitan area during the winter holidays.
Offered by the nonprofit Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), the 2018 Holiday SoberRide® program will be in operation nightly 8:00 pm to 4:00 am, starting on Friday, December 14th and continuing until Monday, December 31st, 2018 as a way to keep local roads safe from impaired drivers during this traditionally high-risk holiday period.
During this eight-hour period, area residents age 21 and older celebrating with alcohol may download Lyft to their phones, then enter a SoberRide® code in the app’s “Promo” section to receive their no cost (up to $15) safe transportation home. WRAP’s weekly Holiday SoberRide promo codes will be posted at 12:00 pm on December 14, December 22, and December 31 on SoberRide.com.
(Last year, WRAP announced a partnership with the ridesharing service Lyft to provide WRAP’s SoberRide® service in the Washington-metropolitan area. SoberRide®, the popular free safe ride service to prevent drunk driving, is now solely available via the Lyft mobile app ridesharing platform.)
“Last December, nearly 2,000 (1,838) Greater Washington residents did the right thing and availed themselves of this lifesaving service rather than possibly driving home impaired,” said Kurt Gregory Erickson, WRAP’s President. “For SoberRide’s hours of operation on New Year’s alone, this level of ridership (1,225) translated into SoberRide removing a would-be drunk driver from Greater Washington’s roadways nearly every 23 seconds.”
The charity also offers its SoberRide® program on St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day, and Halloween.
SoberRide® is offered throughout Lyft’s Washington, D.C. coverage area which includes all or parts of: the District of Columbia; the Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s; and the Northern Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William.
“Lyft is proud of the role ridesharing has played in reducing impaired driving across the nation. Here in the DC area, partnering with the Washington Regional Alcohol Program
CONTACT: PHONE:
Kurt Gregory Erickson President
W. 703-893-0461 CELL. 703-625-2303
allows us to take our commitment to providing safe, convenient, and affordable transportation a step further, particularly during times of the year when people are out celebrating and in need of a ride home,” said Steve Taylor, GM, Lyft Washington, D.C.
Sponsors of this year’s Holiday SoberRide® campaign include the 395 Express Lanes, AAA Mid-Atlantic, Anheuser-Busch, Brown-Forman, Constellation Brands, District of Columbia Association of Beverage Alcohol Wholesalers, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Giant Food, Glory Days Grill, Heineken, Kendall-Jackson, Lyft, MillerCoors, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, Volkswagen Group of America and the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association.
Since 1991, WRAP’s SoberRide® program has provided 73,510 free safe rides home to would-be drunk drivers in the Greater Washington area.
Founded in 1982, the nonprofit [501(c)(3)] Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is a coalition of diverse interests using effective education, innovative programs and targeted advocacy to end alcohol-impaired driving and underage drinking in the Washington, DC metro area. Through public education, innovative health education programs and advocacy, WRAP is credited with keeping the metro-Washington area’s alcohol-related traffic deaths historically lower than the national average.
More information about WRAP’s SoberRide® initiative can be found at
www.SoberRide.com.
*Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, see:
https://www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov/get-materials/drunk-driving/buzzed-driving-drunk-driving/holiday- season
#
https://www.wrap.org/pdfs/2018sr-holiday-pr.pdf
