Wednesday, April 17, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
A splash of color is brightening shop windows across town today, an 18-by-22-inch poster that at first glance looks like an ad for the Fremont Street Experience.
The Las Vegas Club and Golden Gate hotel-casinos are in the backdrop, along with the domed Experience, all illuminated with the neon that means Las Vegas.
Yet it's the golden letters centered at the top that the poster's creators want passersby to see most:
"For the Best Experience on any Street, Don't Drink and Drive."
The project is Clark County's first educational step in this summer's crusade against drinking and driving.
Stop DUI's Sandy Heverly and Trooper Steve Harney of the Nevada Highway Patrol began talking about ways to educate the community to not drink and drive a few months ago, anticipating a rash of drunken drivers on the roadway this summer based on past years' experience.
With the financial support of The Frias Companies -- owners of Ace, North Las Vegas, ABC and Vegas Western cabs, and Airport Service and Las Vegas Limousines -- the concept began to materialize.
Rigby Studios designed the final product, Southwest Color Graphics provided the film and printing, and Opulence Studios was responsible for photography.
The combined price tag, factoring in labor, materials and more than 5,000 printed copies: $18,000.
But the price is worth it, its creators say.
"Channel 3 ran one of the posters on their morning show, and we've had at least 50 shops call us asking to reserve a copy," Harney said. "The response has been tremendous."
The Frias Companies were eager to get involved, said spokeswoman Sandra Lee Avants.
"We have more than 800 drivers who are working on the roads," Avants said. "We're concerned for their safety and for their passengers' safety."
Shops began receiving copies of the posters this morning, and its creators hope that soon every store front will have one.
An average of one alcohol-related fatality happened every 32 minutes across the country in 1994, according to national statistics. That same year, 125 people died from alcohol-related driving accidents in Nevada, and 62 in Clark County.
"The message to not drink and drive is very clear and uncomplicated," Heverly said. "And I don't think we can say that message enough."
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