'Tis the season for holiday parties; unfortunately, it's also a season that sees a spike in impaired driving. According to AAA, 89.5 million Americans will drive 50 miles or more from home during the year-end holiday season, and some of them will be drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reporting that 733 people died last December in drunk-driving crashes.
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Instead of getting behind the wheel, AAA is encouraging impaired drivers to contact a local Safe Ride program, which arranges tows or rides for AAA members. Click here to see if the service is available in your town. NHTSA also publishes a list of sober/safe ride programs across the country.
Although designating a sober driver before hitting the party is the safest option, Marshall L. Doney, AAA president and chief operating officer, says that step often gets skipped. The agency's research shows that 1 in 8 licensed drivers who drink at least occasionally reported having driven when they thought their alcohol level might have been close to, or possibly over, the legal limit in the past year.
"Despite the ubiquitous warnings about drinking and driving, especially during the holiday season, an average of one alcohol-impaired driving death occurs every 45 minutes," Doney said in a statement.
NHTSA recommends the following precautions to help drivers stay safe this New Year's Eve:
Don't drink and drive: Be responsible; if you plan to drink, choose a designated driver before going out. NHTSA has a new mobile app designed to help people who have been drinking get a safe ride home.
Buckle seat belts: Research shows that lap and shoulder seat belts, when used, reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent.
Protect child passengers: Child safety seats reduce fatal injury by 71 percent for infants (younger than 1 year old) and by 54 percent for toddlers (1 to 4 years old) in passenger cars. The best way to protect children in the car is to put them in the correct child safety seat for their size and age. Also, all children 13 and younger should ride in the backseat.
Avoid distraction: In 2012, 10 percent of fatal crashes and 18 percent of injury crashes were distraction related. Distracted driving can be anything that pulls your attention away from driving, including cellphone use, texting while driving, eating, drinking and using in-vehicle technologies and portable electronic devices.
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from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/
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