Don’t crash New Year’s Eve parties with a drunk driving car accident

Posted by Bruce Westbrook

December 29, 2009

Americans love their holiday traditions, including New Year’s Eve. In Japan, the new year isn’t widely acknowledged until people rise the next morning. But in the USA, millions of revelers party past midnight to ring in another year. The only trouble is, such partying often includes heavy drinking and unleashes drunk drivers on our roads.

It’s always the same story, so you’d think Americans would wake up and learn a vital lesson: Don’t drink and drive. Yet such deaths spike during year-end holidays, and thousands of Americans (nearly 14,000 in 2008) become yearly statistics in drunk driving fatalities.

You can do something to change this, starting with yourself and your loved ones. Don’t let anyone who’s close to you drive drunk — at any time, and for any reason. Sober friends or family members can do the driving, or perhaps taxi drivers. Is saving the cost of cab fare worth losing a life? No. It’s a small price to pay for escaping death or serious injury in a drunk driving car accident.

Law enforcement officials are helping, too. Across America, police are stepping up efforts to arrest drunk drivers around the holidays, with more checkpoints and more officers on patrol. All 50 states have drunk driving laws which make it unlawful to drive with a minimum BAC (blood alcohol content) of .08.

In Texas, such enforcement is enhanced by a new drunk driving law which enables arresting officers to get a blood test for alcohol without a warrant under certain circumstances. These include injuries or death in the accident and the presence of a child in one of the accident vehicles.

You can help law officers, too, by alerting them when you spot a drunk driver. What tips you off to a tippler? Many things. Be wary of drivers who weave in and out of lanes, who travel too fast or too slowly, who remain waiting at intersections when a traffic light turns green, or who otherwise perform erratically or recklessly. (Of course, these things also could signal a distracted driver due to cell phones, but that’s another story.) If you strongly suspect that a car is being driven by a drunk, you can call 911 to report it.

You also can help if you’re hosting a New Year’s Eve party. Ensure that yourself — or someone at the party — is completely sober, to make cautionary decisions. That includes trying to curb the drinking of anyone who’s clearly had too much. If you can, confiscate the car keys of guests who teeter toward drunkenness, or even offer to let an inebriated guest sleep on your couch rather than risk a dangerous drive home.

All these things can help, and that’s what stemming the tide of drunk driving accidents is about. Incremental losses can be offset by incremental gains. But if you or a loved one is injured by a drunk driver, you still have options, and one is to engage a drunk driving lawyer or attorney with Jim S. Adler & Associates.

The longtime Texas personal injury law firm has helped thousands of Texans with their accident injuries and can help you, too. Just fill out the free case review form on this web page, or call us toll-free at 1-800-505-1414. A legal representative will respond to you shortly to help assess your drunk driving accident case.

Let’s hope that our extra vigilance won’t make that necessary, and you can ring in New Year’s Day with triumph, not tragedy. But if a drunk driver does harm you or a family member, an Adler car accident lawyer can fight for your legal rights to financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. That’s our resolution at any time of year.

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