SUMMER PARTIES – DESIGNATED DRIVER
FACT SHEET & TALKING POINTS

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Plan Before You Party This Summer
Don’t Forget to Designate a Sober Driver

• The “100 Days of Summer” represent one of the most dangerous and deadliest times of year on the Nation’s highways. One big reason comes from the significant jump in alcohol-related traffic crashes and fatalities.
  
  
• Increased alcohol use throughout the summer and particularly around major holiday weekends, beginning with Memorial Day, continuing through the 4th of July and ending with Labor Day, has made the “100 Days of Summer” a very grim season for law enforcement, emergency medical staff, highway safety officials, and the friends and families of impaired-driving victims.
  
  
• Much of the tragedy that comes from alcohol-related crashes could be prevented if everyone would take a few simple precautions before going out to party in the summer. When you plan on using alcohol, be sure to Plan Before You Party – Designate a Sober Driver in advance. And remember, Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk.

Always follow these tips for a safer summer outing:

• Designate your sober driver before going out.
  
  
• If drinking alcohol, don’t even think about driving when impaired – and never let your friends drive if you think they are impaired.
  
  
• Eat plenty of food, don’t drink on any empty stomach, and drink lots of water during your activities to avoid dehydration.
  
  
• When impaired, ask a sober friend for a ride home, use mass transit, or call a cab or your local sober rides program, (if your community has a local sober rides program, insert the information and phone number here).
  
  
• Or ask a friend or family member to come get you; or just stay where you are and sleep it off until you are sober.
  
  
• And, of course, always remember to wear your safety belt. It is still your single best defense against injury or death in a crash.

Impaired Driving Is a Deadly Problem

• Impaired driving is one of America’s deadliest problems. Nationally, in 2003, more than 17,000 people died in alcohol-related highway crashes. More than 300,000 were injured.
  
  
• Every 30 minutes, nearly 50 times a day, someone in America dies in an alcohol-related crash. This means you, your friends, and your family are regularly at risk.
  
  
• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 3 in every 10 Americans will be involved in an impaired-driving crash at some point in their lives.
  
  
• The rate of alcohol involvement in a fatal crash is more than three times as high at night than during the day.
  
  
• Although national alcohol-related highway fatalities during 2003 declined slightly for the first time in several years (down three percent from 2002), there is still much more work to be done.
  
  
• Too many people still don’t understand that alcohol, drugs, and driving don’t mix. Impaired driving is no accident – nor is it a victimless crime.
  
  
• Legislators and law enforcement officials are becoming even more vigilant in combating impaired driving. The year 2004 marked the first year that laws regarding blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) at 0.08 grams per deciliter have been enacted in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Impaired Driving Creates Serious Consequences

• The tragedies and costs from drinking and driving impaired do not just end at the potential death, disfigurement, disability, and injury caused by impaired drivers.
  
  
• Driving impaired or riding with someone who is impaired is not worth the risk. The consequences are serious and real. Not only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for driving while impaired can be significant and not the way you want to spend your summer.
  
  
• Violators often face jail time, the loss of their driver licenses, higher insurance rates, and dozens of other expenses from attorney fees, other fines and court costs, car towing and repairs, lost time at work, etc.
  
  
• There is the added embarrassment, humiliation, potential loss and consequence after informing family, friends, and employers.
  
  
• The bottom-line: Plan Before You Party This Summer. Don’t Forget to Designate a Sober Driver.

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