Drive Merry, Bright, and Sober This Holiday Season, and Remember: Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving
2019 Holiday Season Impaired Driving Prevention
The holiday season is right around the corner. As we prepare for festivities with family and friends, NHTSA wants to remind all drivers of the dangers of "buzzed driving".
- November 29 - December 10, 2019
You have to choose your role before drinking begins: will you drink or will you drive? Remember, even if you only have a little bit to drink and think you’re "okay to drive," you could still be over the legal limit.
- Paid Media: December 11, 2019 - January 1, 2020
- Mobilization: December 13, 2019 - January 1, 2020
Drug-impaired driving is also a problem on America’s highways. Like drunk driving, drugged driving is impaired driving, which means that it is dangerous and illegal. Whether the drug is legally prescribed or illegally obtained, driving while drug-impaired poses a threat to the driver, vehicle passengers, and other road users.
These marketing tools can be distributed to fit your local needs and objectives while, at the same time, partnering with State, communities, and other traffic safety organizations on this holiday season impaired driving prevention initiative:
Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving [social norming] Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over [enforcement] Drive High - Get a DUI [enforcement]
Our Mission Statement
Achieve progress “Toward Zero Deaths” by reducing the number of crashes, injuries and fatalities on Vermont's roads and to provide highway safety data and fact-based analyses that will assist communities and safety advocates in implementing effective programs that will change high-risk driving behavior and increase safety on our streets and highways.
Where are we located
The Vermont State Highway Safety Office - Behavioral Safety Unit is located within the Agency of Transportation's Highway’s Division, Office of Operations and Safety Bureau, Dill Building, Unit A, 2178 Airport Road, Barre, VT 05641.
What We Do
The Vermont State Highway Safety Office - Behavioral Safety Unit (SHSO-BSU) awards federal highway safety grant funds to local, state and non-profit agencies for projects to improve highway safety and reduce deaths and serious injuries due to crashes. The SHSO-BSU is also involved with the Vermont Highway Safety Alliance (VHSA) which has allowed us to build upon a network of highway safety professionals, working in collaboration to increase highway safety through these federally funded programs.
The SHSO-BSU has an in-house staff of three Program Coordinators with specific subject matter areas of expertise, to include Occupant Protection, Distracted Driving, Impaired Driving, Law Enforcement (DUI and OP Enforcement) and Education Outreach programs. The staff of the SHSO-BSU manages state highway safety grant funds by providing guidance, oversight and monitoring for our partners.
The programs administered through the SHSO-BSU are federally funded through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Our programs are defined and approved each year in the SHSO-BSU Highway Safety Plan (HSP) and align with the State’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Through these plans, we analyze data, identify problems, define emphasis areas, and set goals in order to administer funds to programs in a responsible manner in accordance with federal guidelines.
The Vermont State Highway Safety Office - Behavioral Safety Unit programs are designed to educate drivers, passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists about highway safety. Our programs employ the use of countermeasures that focus primarily on the modification of driver’s behavior and attitude.
