TxDOT Turns to Telenovelas to Reach Spanish Speaking Community

Austin, TX - TxDOT is turning to soap operas to inform Spanish-speaking community about driving while intoxicated.

Telenovelas are running throughout the state of Texas, targeting DWI's and the spanish speaking popoulation in Texas. The Texas Department of Transportation, who produced the $80,000 series says alcohol related crashes and deaths are a serious problem in Texas, adding 36 percent of all DUI fatalities in Texas in 2009, involved a Hispanic driver who was under the influence. Also, more than 14,000 Hispanic drivers in Texas where involved in alcohol-related crashes, 72 percent of those were under the influence. In order to reach everyone, TxDOT producing informative telenovelas.

"We have decided to create something soley in Spanish, produced in Spanish and it's for the Spanish community," said Tracie Mendez, with TxDOT.

Three telenovelas have played on Spanish speaking TV. They focus on the topic of DWI's by playing out scenarios.

In one telenovela, parents receive an early morning phone call only to find out their son was driving drunk and caused a crash.

"One is inside where you have the women talking about one of their friends and her husband just got arrested for dwi and how devasting it's going to be for the family and how it touches every part of the family," said Mendez.

The telenovelas also touch on the consequences of driving while intoxicated, which include jail time, significant fines and even injuring or killing someone. TxDO got the idea after researching novleas in Mexico and Venezuela.

"One of the examples we did research on was the mammograms. They saw that not many the Hispanic women were getting mammograms so they put that issue inside of a novela and they saw a 400 percent increase in mammograms. So people are watching them and they do listen to them," said Mendez.

The novelas are even getting the attention of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"It's kitchy. And they were trying to be funny. And it's cute so they're probably effective," said Celia Isreal, a board member with the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Israel says the production is a great use of taxpayer dollars.

"If a certain segment of the Hispanic community is more comfortable watching Spanish language television, by all means, put a peice together that's going to reach out to them and let them know this is the situation, take it seriously," said Isreal.

The telenovelas can be found on TxDOT's website, YouTube and on various spanish speaking channels throughout the state.