Alcohol Awareness Month: ‘Booze It & Lose It’ car to raise awareness about drinking, driving
By Heather Huber
April 5, 2018
TENNESSEE – For the next week, Soldiers and Family members may notice something odd pulled up to the curb outside the main entrance of The Exchange.
A Ford Crown Victoria with an unusual paint job will be on display until April 17. The front of the car is painted like a normal Tennessee Highway Patrol vehicle, but the back half has been painted to resemble a taxi cab with the logo “Booze It & Loose It” on the door panels. The back window informs observers of the price difference between being picked up by a cab and being arrested by a state trooper for drunk or distracted driving.
The display is part of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program’s awareness campaign throughout the month of April which is Alcohol Awareness Month.
“We partnered with the Tennessee Highway Patrol try to raise awareness across the installations,” said Charlie Washington, Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program operations officer. “We wanted a big item to try to draw people’s attention, so we thought there’d be nothing better than to get something that explains what your choices could actually lead to.”
Washington said people can take a cab when they go out for a night of drinking, or they can try to drive themselves and risk some very serious consequences if they get pulled over. “I wanted the specific car because it’s an attention-getter,” he said. “Taxis are going to cost you a little bit of money, but they aren’t going to cost anyone else their life. It’s not going to cost you your licenses. It’s not going to cost you thousands and thousands of dollars in fines.”
The DUI taxi provides a visual for anyone making the choice between calling a taxi or risking a driving while intoxicated charge, Washington said.
“The car is half trooper car, half taxi and the purpose of it is to remind people the financial cost of a DUI,” said Travis Plotzer, Tennessee Highway Patrol special programs lieutenant. “It’s $50 or like $1,500 in fines… It’s just something people can see and remind them ‘I can make a simple choice.’”
Plotzer said driving under the influence not only costs more money than calling a ride, it also could cost a driver his or her freedom or even someone’s life.
“The hardest part of our job is not writing a ticket. It’s not taking somebody to jail,” Plotzer said. “It’s going to knock on a door to tell [family members] their loved one’s been killed in a car crash when it’s [happened because of] something totally preventable like DUI or distracted driving.”
Plotzer wanted to partner with Fort Campbell ASAP because the highway patrol cares about Soldiers the same way Soldiers care about Americans.
“Anything we can do to protect the people who protect us, we want to do it,” he said. “Any time we get an invite to Fort Campbell we try to make it happen.”
The DUI taxi is designed to grab attention and stick in people’s minds long after they leave The Exchange in the hopes they will rethink reckless behavior, Plotzer said.
“The biggest take away is for them to change their choices. We have a lot of Soldiers in the military who throw their careers away because of poor choices,” he said.
Washington wanted the car situated outside The Exchange because he believes it is one of the biggest gathering points on the installation, so it would have the biggest impact there.
“We take it to schools and places of business, anywhere we can reach the crowds and make an impact,” Plotzer said. “There’s three Es when it comes to highway safety. Education, enforcement, engineering. This is the education portion.”
Charlie Caplinger, Tennessee Highway Patrol sergeant, said the troopers will take the patrol-taxi car wherever it will have the biggest impact in an effort to be proactive instead of reactive.
“We feel like if we can save one life, then we’re doing our job,” Caplinger said.
Caplinger said in his 16 years with highway patrol, he has seen too many fatal wrecks involving Fort Campbell Soldiers.
“They go out to Nashville, they party, they have too much to drink and they drive back home,” he said. “They like to speed, and of course the alcohol [means] they don’t have good judgment. It is a problem.”
Many people first react to the car with joking and laughing, but after the troopers explain the actual consequences of being picked up versus calling a ride, people start to really think.
“The main thing is, especially when Soldiers start drinking, you’ve got a choice. A taxi that can take you [home], or the patrol car that can take you away,” Washington said.