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The Isanti County Safe Cab program recently announced that the demand for a safe cab ride home from bars and restaurants is up over 33 percent from the same period in 2007 and DUI arrests are down. This continues a trend that has been reported almost from the start of this innovative program.
The Safe Cab program is a collaboration of bar owners and managers, law enforcement, the local taxi company, sponsors and liquor businesses to provide free rides home or at significantly reduced cost for patrons at participating bars. The program is funded privately by the bars and liquor establishments, sponsors and donations.
According to Judge James Dehn of the 10th District Court, the number of DUI cases, tracked in his courtroom from January 1, 2008 through July 30, 2008 is down by 42 percent compared to the same period in 2007.
“With over 40,000 DUI arrests in Minnesota in 2007, Isanti County may be the only county in the state where DUI arrests are going down in 2008,” said Judge Dehn. “This trend is not going unnoticed by prosecutors and probation officers. They are seeing a noticeable drop in their DUI case loads and DUI offenders coming into the courtroom.”
Judge Dehn has been tracking all DUI pleas in his courtroom for over 11 years and has been a leader in developing DUI sentencing programs and has been instrumental in the push to have a Safe Cab program in Isanti County.
While the number of Safe Cab rides is up one-third, the cost to transport the passengers is up only slightly. In increase of $.43 per passenger and the overall cost of a Safe Cab trip is up just shy of one dollar.
Pete Brown, of Cambridge Cab Inc., reports that the average cost per passenger of the Safe Cab program is $6.34 for 2008 compared to $5.91 for 2007.
“This program pays for itself in the reduction of deaths, injuries and suffering many times over,” said Brown. “When bar patrons choose or bar staff recommends that they take a Safe Ride home, everybody wins. The community is safer on the roads, the patron does not need to worry about a possible DUI arrest and the liquor establishment has lowered their liability exposure and knows the customer will have a safe trip home.”
The Isanti County Safe Cab program is becoming a national model of how to lower DUI arrests and prevent deaths and injuries in a cost effective way. The program has been such a success that interested parties are calling and inquiring from across the country and the state for more information. A group in Pine County is holding a meeting to see if it would be feasible to have a Safe Cab program in their area beginning in November of this year.
“We are proving that we can do something to reduce the carnage on our roads caused by impaired drivers and we can do it for far less cost than people think,” said Brown.
Last year, according to Judge Dehn’s tracking statistics, the participating liquor establishments using the Safe Cab program reduced their DUI (last place of drink) arrest rate by an average of 65 percent, with one establishment experiencing an 83 percent decrease compared to 2007.
Since the Safe Cab program began in December of 2005 there have been over 1,053 Safe Cab rides provided to more than 1,800 passengers either free or at significantly reduced cost and there was only month that demand for a ride went down and that was October of 2007 when the Freedom to Breathe act took effect.
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