December 14, 2009

The Designated Driver Turns 21

Harvard School of Public Health professor Jay Winsten enlisted popular TV shows to reduce drunk-driving fatalities.

The "designated driver" has turned 21—and during that period, the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities has fallen from about 25,000 a year to about 13,000. Today’s Boston Globe reported this news in a brief interview with Jay Winsten, associate dean for public and community affairs at Harvard School of Public Health.

Winsten played a major role in introducing the Scandinavian practice to the United States as a positive solution to the problem of drinking and driving; a major breakthrough was getting popular TV shows to refer to designated drivers in their programming, as the Globe interview and “Drinking and Driving Get Prime Time,” an article from the Harvard Magazine archives, make clear.

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