New York, USA – Officials in Bogotá, Colombia today initiated a strong mass media campaign aimed at reducing drink driving, a frequent cause of road crashes in the Colombian capital. With support from Vital Strategies and the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), the city’s campaign will remind motorists of the great danger, both to themselves and others, caused by drink driving. The public service announcement (PSA) that was launched in conjunction with Bogotá’s annual “Mobility Week.”
Last year, 447 road crashes occurred in Bogotá resulting from drink driving, an increase from 427 in 2014. So far this year, 271 drink driving-related road crashes have taken place, with 14 percent resulting in fatalities and 49 percent in injuries.
Weekends account for roughly 70 percent of weekly drink driving-related road crashes in the city, with young men being an overwhelming majority of violators. Drinking and operating a motor vehicle causes injury and death to passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and drivers themselves. Because this is such a significant public health issue, the city plans to merge enforcement of Colombia’s broad drink driving laws with this campaign to cut the prevalence of this significant road crash risk factor.
“Studies demonstrate that risk for suffering a car crash increases considerably by each additional alcohol level in the blood. We launched this drinking and driving campaign, and we are also strengthening our capacity to build specific checkpoint controls by training the police department and other control staffs,” said the Mobility Secretary in Bogotá, Juan Pablo Bocarejo.
“We congratulate Bogotá, for using this opportunity to crack down on the number of fatalities and injuries that result from harmful drink driving,” said José Luis Castro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vital Strategies. “Colombian national drink driving laws, which combine heavy fines with community service, vehicle impoundment and driver’s license suspensions make it clear that drink driving is unacceptable. We’re pleased that Bogotá is committed to vigorously enforcing these laws testing so that the city’s streets are safer for everyone.”
Bogotá will use television, radio and social media to promote the campaign, which will run through October. It is part of a global, 10 city program spearheaded by BIGRS and coordinated by Vital Strategies to reduce road crashes in major cities around the world.
About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies envisions a world where every person is protected by a strong public health system. Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change.
For further information please contact Jon Steed, Vital Strategies, at +1.917.710.2846 or jsteed@vitalstrategies.org