FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          
          
Contact: Chief Jeff Spaulding, President          
Maryland Chiefs of Police Association          
410-516-9896          
          
COMPLETE THE PASS ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY –           
GIVE YOUR KEYS TO A DESIGNATED DRIVER BEFORE THE GAME BEGINS          
          
State and County Safety Advocates and Enforcement Agencies Team Up to Keep Drivers Safe          
          
(January 28, 2008) Complete the pass for the big game by handing your keys to a designated sober driver. The Maryland Chiefs of Police Association will be teaming up with other federal, state and local highway safety and law enforcement officials with this message: If you’re planning to drink on Super Bowl Sunday, act responsibly by not driving while impaired.          
          
Local law enforcement will be OUT IN FORCE during Super Bowl Weekend. Please remember that if you plan on using alcohol, pass your keys to a sober, designated driver before the big game begins. “Maryland’s law enforcement community will be coordinating efforts to conduct DUI saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints throughout the weekend to ensure that the roadways are safe for all motorists,” said the organization’s president, and Westminster Police Chief, Jeff Spaulding.           
          
The national effort is lead by TEAM (Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management), an alliance between the National Football League (NFL), other professional sports leagues, as well as entertainment facilities, concessionaires, and broadcasters including RADD (Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes Against Drunk Driving). TEAM is a coalition united by a shared mission to provide effective training to the public regarding responsible alcohol consumption. For more information visit: StopImpairedDriving.org and TeamCoalition.org.           
          
Super Bowl Sunday has become one of America’s biggest and most entertaining national sporting events, yet it is also one of the year’s most dangerous days on the nation’s roadways, due to impaired driving related traffic crashes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly 50 percent of all traffic fatalities during the Super Bowl weekend last year were caused by impaired drivers with blood alcohol levels of 0.08% and above. Nationally, more than 13,000 people died in impaired driving-related highway crashes during 2006, over 200 of which occurred in Maryland. Every 30 minutes, nearly 50 times a day, someone in America dies in an impaired driving-related crash.           
          
Driving impaired or riding with someone who is impaired is simply not worth the risk because the consequences are serious and real. Impaired driving crashes carry traumatic and financial costs and could result in an arrest, a serious injury or even death. It’s just not worth the risk. You drink and drive. You lose.          
          
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The Maryland Chiefs of Police Association is an alliance of executive law enforcement officers from State, Local and Federal Agencies dedicated to leading and supporting the efforts of police chiefs and sworn law enforcement executives in advancing the science and art of police services.