Description of Strategy
A designated driver is one person in a group of two or more people who agrees to abstain from drinking alcohol in order to safely drive the others members of the group home. A Designated Driver Program can be population-based campaigns when mass media and other communication channels are used to promote the use of designated drivers.
Discussion of Effectiveness
Alcohol
The Task Force on Community Preventive Services (Ditter et al., 2005) completed a systematic review and found only one study that qualified. Results from the study show respondents who “always” used a designated driver increased 13 percentage points. However, there was no significant change in self-reported alcohol-impaired driving or riding in a car with an impaired driver. The Task Force concluded there is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of Designated Driver Programs (population-based) to reduce impaired driving.