Don’t Let Impaired Driving Ruin Your Halloween

This year, Halloween falls on a Friday, and area police will be out on the roads looking for drunk drivers as part of an aggressive Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement effort.  Consider yourself warned: if local law enforcement catches you driving over the legal limit, you will be arrested.

“On Halloween, the real horrors occur out on the road when people choose to drive drunk,” said Joseph DeMarzo, Putnam County Communities That Care Coalition Co-Chairperson, and drunk driving is a choice—a preventable one. “We want to remind all Putnam County drivers that if you’ve had any alcohol to drink, you cannot drive. There are always other options: a designated, sober driver; a taxi, etc.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), from 2008-2012, almost half (51%) of all crash fatalities on Halloween night involved a drunk driver or motorcycle operator. During that 5-year period, there were 166 people killed in drunk-driving crashes on Halloween night. And on a night best-known for trick-or-treaters in the streets, it’s no surprise that pedestrians make up a tragic number of those fatalities. In 2012, 19 percent of the fatal pedestrian crashes on Halloween involved drunk drivers.

In every state, it’s illegal to drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or higher. Yet every year in the United States, thousands of people lose their lives to this reckless crime. In 2012 alone, 10,322 people were killed in crashes involving a drunk driver or motorcycle operator. Driving drunk costs lives and the other consequences can be costly as well. A DUI arrest costs $10,000 on average. Wouldn’t you rather spend a fraction of that on a sober ride home instead?

If you plan to drink on Halloween, plan now how you’ll get home. No costume can hide you from the police if you drive drunk, they’ll see you before you see them.”

This Halloween, the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement campaign aims to save lives by reminding all drivers to follow these simple tips:

·         Before the Halloween festivities begin, plan a way to safely get home at the end of the night. If you wait until you’ve been drinking, —you’re more likely to make the wrong decision to drive drunk.

·         Always designate a sober driver.

·         If you are impaired, take a taxi, call a sober friend or family member.

·         Walking impaired can be just as dangerous as drunk driving.  Designate a sober friend to walk you home.

·         If you see a drunk driver on the road, contact local law enforcement.

·         If you know someone who is about to drive or ride impaired, take their keys and help them make safe travel arrangements to where they are going.

For more information, please visit www.TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov. Members of the Putnam CTC Coalition are available if you have any questions or would like for us to do a presentation to your organization on this or any other substance abuse trends that affect our children.  Please visit and join us on Facebook by searching “Putnam County Communities That Care – NY” or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/PutnamCTCNY or call 845-225-4646.