Irish eyes will be smiling this Friday – St. Patrick’s Day. Green beer, corned beef and cabbage, and leprechauns will not be hard to find. All over the world 13 million pints of Guinness will be enjoyed, according to WalletHub, a personal finance website. As a matter of fact, St. Patrick’s Day is the fourth most popular drinking day of the year, surpassed by only New Year’s Eve, Christmas day, and the Fourth of July.
This year, St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday, and there may be remnants of this week’s winter storm that brought freezing snow and rainy conditions to our area causing slush and ice on the streets. This will result in dangerous road conditions.
A sobering stat is that there is a spike in drunk-driving crashes on St. Patrick’s Day every year. Between 2011 and 2015, 252 people died in car crashes during the St. Patrick’s Day holiday and there were 30 drunk-driving casualties on the holiday in 2015 alone.
Seventy percent of the drivers involved in fatal crashes on St. Patrick’s Day were more than two times over the legal alcohol limit and the interval at which alcohol-related crashes claim a life on St. Patrick’s Day is 72 minutes, reports WalletHub.
It is no secret that alcohol and driving is a lethal combination. One bad decision can lead to death, injury and destruction, not to mention a lifetime of regret.
Alcohol use slows reaction time and impairs judgement and coordination, all skills needed to drive a car safely.
For a free legal consultation, call 516-451-7900
Before going out on St. Patrick’s Day, designate a driver who will not drink. Other tips include:
-
Be responsible. Never allow someone who has been drinking to get behind the wheel.
Click to contact our personal injury lawyers today
Call the police if you see what appears to be an impaired driver on the road. It’s better to get the police involved than to let a possible car crash occur that you could have prevented.
Complete a Free Case Evaluation form now
-
Coffee will not sober you up. Many people believe that the caffeine in coffee will speed up the alcohol’s metabolism thus sobering you up. NOT TRUE. Coffee may help you wake up, but will not sober you up and does not reduce your blood alcohol level. The only cure for intoxication is time. If you need to get home and don’t have time to wait, get a ride from a sober driver, an Uber or a cab.
Drive sober this St. Patrick’s Day or get pulled over as police will be out in force and will also be setting up sobriety checkpoints.
If you, or someone you care about, has been injured or has been involved in a drunk driving accident, contact Rosenberg & Gluck, personal injury attorneys, for a free and confidential legal consultation to learn more about your options.
