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Former Cop Turns Drunken Driving Tragedy into Unusual Designated Driver Effort

By Christie L. Hill, The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- His son was drunk behind the wheel and almost killed a 22-year old foreign exchange student from Brazil.

Now almost a year later, former police officer Ryan Nielson’s behind the wheel of an unusual designated driver program aimed at getting those who’ve had one too many off Utah streets.

Armed with a rented SUV, a cell phone with a headset, and a handful of volunteers that occasionally includes his 75-year-old father, Nielson totes strangers home, for free, six nights a week. It’s a program called ‘Designated Driver 4 U’.

The call, Nielson says, usually goes something like this: “Hi Ryan, I’ve been drinking.” Nielson then picks up the person and takes them home with “no questions asked, no judgments passed.”

Nielson gave his first free ride September 1, about nine months after an accident that almost killed 22-year-old Ana Bussman. His son, Matthew Nielson, 25, was driving home from a party during the Sundance Film Festival with his girlfriend when he rounded a corner, veered into the opposite lane and hit Bussman from behind as she walked home from work just after midnight Jan. 25.

Nielson didn’t get the call from his son about the accident until the next day.

“‘Dad, I’ve got some horrible news. ... I was arrested for DUI and I hit a pedestrian and I don’t think she’s gonna live,”’ Nielson said, recounting the call from his son. Matthew had already been arrested and bonded out when he called his father.

Twenty minutes later, Ryan Nielson stood at Bussman’s bedside, holding her hand and praying. “I knew I had to be with her,” he said. “I just had to see her.”

Doctors said the woman wouldn’t live and they were just waiting for her family to come to the U.S. from Brazil before removing life support. But she eventually recovered. She hopes to walk again.

Matthew Nielson has since started a three-year prison term for the accident. But before he was sentenced, he visited Bussman in the hospital, and the woman’s father forgave him.

That’s when Ryan Nielson began brainstorming, groping for ways to prevent further tragedies. The answer was simple: Get drunk drivers off the road.

“I want to have Salt Lake have one of the finest designated driver’s program around, and it has to be everybody’s concern,” he said.

So Nielson made up thousands of hot-pink-colored cards with his phone number on them, and started handing them out to downtown bars and nightclubs, hoping they’d entice imbibing patrons to think twice before driving. Nielson says he’s given about 200 free rides so far.

Josh Richardson, owner of Shaggy’s bar in downtown Salt Lake City, said he first saw Nielson hanging around the bar offering people rides in September. His business partner told him Nielson’s story, and Richardson was immediately on board. He says Nielson is making a difference. Shaggy’s even offered to buy Nielson a car for his program.

“I really think it’s opened people’s eyes, you know, even if they don’t get a ride from him, I think we’ve seen an increase in taxis and designated drivers,” Richardon said.

A typical weekend nets Nielson a couple dozen calls. He’s had passengers vomit in the vehicles he rents to transport them, and says he needs a shower at the end of each night because of the boozy stench that fills the vehicle. He’s even had inebriated passengers offer to volunteer for the program.

But Nielson says sometimes it’s the slow nights that offer the most reward.

On a recent Friday night after giving only four rides, Nielson was about to call it a night when he made one last trip past a dark and empty downtown bar called “Port O’ Call.” There he saw a small group of the bar’s workers standing out front.

Nielson rolled down the window and asked them if any needed a ride. No, they said, but a man sitting in his SUV parked nearby might. They had already taken his keys away.

Nielson drove up to the car, got out, and asked the man if he needed a ride home. The man’s dark red, blood-shot eyes said it all. His efforts to start the car without keys were failing.

Nielson coaxed the man into his car, and drove him home -- a daunting task because the drunken man spoke little English. Nielson gave him his card, and even offered to pick the man up the next day to go get his car.

“This makes it all worth it,” Nielson said later, “this one driver alone.”

Nielson wants to make ‘Designated Driver 4 U” a full-time job, and is just one step away from quitting his day job at a graphics company. He’s met with beer distributors, local leaders, and state legislators to get funding, and though small donations are rolling in, they’re not enough.

Nielson still has to convince the bigger potential sponsors -- such as the state of Utah -- that his program doesn’t promote irresponsible drinking. As for the state, one lawmaker isn’t sure what role the state could, or should, have.

“Many people have shied away from this for the mixed messages,” said state Sen. Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake City. “What I’m doing now is trying to gather some more information. I think we have to look at all sides. It has to be carefully crafted so people don’t think you’re sending a message that you can be as irresponsible as you want.”

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On the Net:
www.designateddriver4u.com