Winter 2006 Forward to a Friend


Cruisin' Not Boozin'
CNB Staff
Coordinator Carole Flounders (left) and the Cruisin’ not Boozin’ team help educate young people not to mix alcohol, drugs and driving.
SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital began the Cruisin’ not Boozin’ program as a community service to educate young people to help reduce the incidents of deaths and injuries due to this lethal mixture. Typically the result of automobile accidents, these injuries are most frequent in young people between 15 and 24 years old. Approximately 50 percent of these accidents also involve alcohol or drugs.

The Cruisin’ not Boozin’ injury-prevention and highway-safety program annually visits 80 to 90 elementary, middle and high schools as well as colleges and community organizations. The program is intended to heighten awareness about the dangers of mixing alcohol and drugs with driving. The speakers include many former patients who were involved in some way in an alcohol- or drug-related accident. Drivers, passengers or accident victims, they all have permanent injuries – mostly to the brain and/or spinal cord.

Because the speakers are people with whom the young audiences relate, they have significant impact – far more than adult lectures and warnings. During the program, the speakers talk about losses readily understood by other young people. These include physical disfigurement; going without a date since the accident; not being able to drive, work or live independently; and loss of freedom.

Another part of the program is a presentation for parents. Family members caring for injured young people help parents understand how devastating these types of injuries are for the whole family.

Subaru of America, Inc. has helped support the Cruisin’ not Boozin’ program for 10 years. Subaru also has donated a vehicle as part of its Thirty Cars for Thirty Causes Program to help transport speakers to their presentations.

Visit www.mainlinehealth.org/cnb for more about the Cruisin’ not Boozin’ program.
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