OHS and partners step up to the plate for safety          

The Office of Highway Safety (OHS) has stepped up to the plate in its efforts to reduce impaired driving in Idaho. This year, OHS teamed up with the Boise Hawks for the Labor Day Impaired Driving Mobilization. The Hawks are the Single-A, Short Season affiliate of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies.

The final game of the season was book-ended with highway safety messages – Highway Safety Manager John Tomlinson was invited to throw out the first pitch (pictured below) and the post-game fireworks lit up the sky after a safety announcement was shown on the team’s video board.

“A lot of people may not associate highway safety with baseball,” said OHS Impaired Driving Grants Officer Ken Corder. “Whether it’s your daily commute, or a day on the diamond, it’s really about working together as a team.”

The team focus wasn’t just limited to baseball this year, but it’s been an approach OHS has taken with many of its efforts to stop impaired driving. A renewed effort has helped build new relationships and strengthen existing partnerships.

“It creates synergy amongst our partners and there’s a snowball effect as this effort spreads into communities across the state,” Corder said.

For an example of that synergy, one needs look no further than Kuna. During this summer’s Kuna Days, an awareness and enforcement effort to stop impaired driving was a resounding success. Over the course of the weekend, there wasn’t a single DUI arrest.

“This is because people chose to do the right thing in that community,” Corder said. “If they chose to drink, they got someone sober to take them home and the result is a great outcome of people getting home safely to their families.”

Corder says the team effort is something he sees across the state and like the Hawks, he hopes more Idahoans slide into home safe as a result.

Published 09-08-17