Muskingum County Promotes Driving Sober

The Muskingum County Safe Community Coalition launched their National Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Campaign Monday.

The event took place at the County Fairgrounds. There were multiple guest speakers at the event including members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Community Ambulance and the Muskingum County Coroner. Vice President of Operations for Genesis Community Ambulance, Tom Edminson told us more about the message they are working to send.

“This is a coalition effort against drunk driving.” Said Edminson, “I’m trying to get anyone that would potentially drive drunk to get off the road and make better choices not to do that.”

The campaign is funded through a State Funding Grant given to the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department and involves multiple agencies including Zanesville Police, Muskingum County Sheriff’s Deputies and Highway Patrol Troopers. Edminson said there are serious consequences to drinking and driving and with that in mind, geared their talks toward all age groups.

“Well from my prospective, being with the ambulance company, we respond to multiple drunk driving accidents.” Said Edminson, “We see multiple deaths throughout the year. So we want to do everything we can to prevent having to respond to any of those.”

In Muskingum County alone, there were seventy crashes related to drugs and alcohol in 2014 and thirty-one to date through 2015.