For the first time, the members of Omega Delta Phi are working to educate SMU students about these startling statistics through their program Brothers Against Drunk Driving from Monday, March 7 through Friday, March 11, 2005.
“We know that there is a considerable amount of underage drinking occurring at SMU and we want to make a difference in a student’s choice not to drink and drive. We can’t make the choice for someone, but by educating them of the effects of drunk-driving we are preparing them,” member of Omega Delta Phi Benson Kurian said.
Several other Omega Delta Phi chapters have held the Brothers Against Drunk Driving at their schools and have had great success with it. The SMU chapter of Omega Delta Phi, in partnership with the Dallas-metroplex chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is making the program possible.
“These students are making an incredible effort to educate the rest of the SMU community. Dallas County led Texas in drunk driving deaths in 2003 and with SMU’s spring break coming up they wanted to get the message out at a critical time,” executive director of MADD Mary Kardell said.
The activities during the Brothers Against Drunk Driving week include a drunk driving simulator, video presentations and informational sessions, virtual sobriety tests and displaying a car demolished in a drunk-driving accident. The Dallas-metroplex chapter of MADD is providing many of these resources in an effort to educate the students about the effects of drunk driving. Programs offered by the local chapter of MADD include a “Victim Assistance” program, “Forget me Not” a child/teen “buddy” program, legal and bi-lingual advocacy, youth in action, victim impact panels, youth awareness programs and underage drinking prevention programs.
“MADD and Omega Delta Phi are working toward effectively changing SMU students’ attitudes and behaviors toward under-age drinking and drunk driving. Since Brothers Against Drunk Driving is the first of its kind at SMU, we hope the impact will be significant,” Kardell said.
Over 17, 000 people died in the U.S. from alcohol-related crashes in 2003, with 1,704 of those deaths in Texas. 47 percent of car accidents in Texas are alcohol-related and Texas is 7 percent over the national average of alcohol-related crashes.
The schedule of events for Brothers Against Drunk Driving is as follows:
Monday, March 7: 10am-4pm Dedman
Drunk-driving simulator
Tuesday, March 8: 11am-2pm Hughes-Trigg
Video presentations, handing out informational brochures and other materials
Wednesday, March 9 & Thursday, March 10: 11am-2pm SMU Flagpole
Car on display destroyed in drunk-driving accident
Friday, March 11: 11am-2pm Hughes-Trigg
“Beer goggle” sobriety tests
