LISBON – The Lisbon Police Department, in conjunction with Lisbon High School Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), recently received a grant of $5,500 from the Bureau of Highway Safety and a $1,200 grant from Healthy Androscoggin to produce four public service announcements.

According to Lisbon Detective Bernie McAllister, “The problem of drinking and driving and unsafe driving appears to be on the rise in Lisbon.”

Other issues of concern involve seat belt usage, interim license violations, driving under the influence and other issues related to unsafe driving. “Not only is there an issue of drinking and driving, but also news accounts which indicate there is an issue of reckless driving habits and injury of Maine youth,” he said.

During the week of April vacation, members of the Lisbon High School SADD program will produce the PSAs addressing the issues of OUI and other violations regarding drivers in the age group 15 to 25.

Students have written scripts, assigned roles and will act in a number of scenarios on Tuesday, April 22, and Wednesday, April 23. Dan Osgood Productions of Freeport and Lisbon police, fire and EMS personnel will assist students with the production.

“Lisbon Police Department and Lisbon High School SADD members believe that creating these PSAs can be very effective way to get the message out to youth and adults about the effect of unsafe driving,” said McAllister. “Our goal is to decrease the number of violations through a media campaign that creates awareness that driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol or reckless driving or violation of a conditional license can have very negative effects on young people and their parents.”

The PSAs will be distributed to TV stations in the Portland, Bangor and Presque Isle viewing areas during May and June. The audio portions of the PSAs are targeted to more than 50 radio stations in the state, with the focus on teen programming.