If you want to prevent you and your friends from getting arrested for drunk driving, the primary thing you’ll need to do is to prevent people from getting behind the wheel after drinking alcohol. Although this might seem easy enough, anyone who has been to a party where drinking is involved knows that preventing drunk driving is easier said than done.
If you want to prevent you and your friends from getting in trouble with the law — and possibly prevent people from getting hurt — here are a few things you can do:
- Decide who will be the designated driver at the beginning of the night. This person is not permitted under any conditions to drink alcohol. The designated driver is also responsible for getting everyone home safely.
- Always ask for a ride. If you’re out by yourself or if you don’t have a designated driver, you should always ask for a ride — even if you’ve just had one drink. Did you know that one drink of alcohol is enough to render you too drunk to legally drive in some circumstances? It’s best not to take the risk: Always get a ride.
- If you’re the host of a party, make sure that there are lots of non-alcoholic drink choices.
- Confiscate the keys of your friends. You might feel like you shouldn’t do it, and that your friends will be angry with you, but you could save them a lot of trouble and difficulty later on down the road if you prevent them from drinking and driving.
By adhering to the above tips, you can prevent most circumstances in which people get accused of drunk driving. However, there are many cases when police make errors and accuse people of drunk driving inappropriately. In these situations, wrongly accused individuals can defend themselves against the intoxicated driving charges in court.
Source: State Farm, “Ways to Prevent Drinking and Driving,” accessed Jan. 04, 2018
