Summer is in full swing here in Folly Beach / Charleston with temperatures mid 90’s all last week and beach traffic jams are now an every day event. And with summer comes more drunk driving incidents………It’s no surprise ,  really as more people on go on vacation, take road trips and get out on boats. According to National Safety Council June July and August have the highest occurrence of drunk driving accidents and fatalities. 

You would think that with ride sharing like Uber and Lyft now available just about everywhere that the number of drunk driving fatalities would be way down. But according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) alcohol related fatalities in the US jumped to 13,000 in 2022 for the first time since 2007… and surpassed that mark again in 2023.   And drunk driving deaths have increased 33% overall since 2019. We are heading in the wrong direction!  So what is going on and what can YOU do to help change this trend….   

I scoured the internet to find the reasons, and it comes down to psychology and demographics:

It’s a known fact that alcohol can impair your judgement, and when you drink you may get a false sense of CONFIDENCE and not be able to see or feel your impairment. And after a few too many drinks you can FEEL INVINCIBLE –especially if you‘ve driven drunk before and not been caught.  I’ve been guilty of this… and most people I know have driven drunk before. It’s that little dance with the devil you do in your brain when you tell yourself “I’m OK to drive,”, or you may reason that its OK out of FEAR that you don’t want to leave your car at the bar, or explain to your spouse or your parents that you couldn’t drive home because you were too wasted… so you justify it. 

And as you might imagine it is YOUNG MALE drivers that lead the way in alcohol related driving deaths. According to the National Safety Council a shocking 41% of males age 21-24 involved in fatal crashes in 2022 were impaired with alcohol.

So WHAT CAN YOU DO….?. I’m going to state the obvious here and say just DONT DRINK and DRIVE!

According to MADD and National Transportation Safety Board, here are some TIPS to avoid drunk driving:

DESIGNATE A DRIVER:  Seems obvious but  this is a person who is selected to NOT DRINK AT ALL, as opposed to add hoc decision later in the evening when you look around and see who is the least buzzed.

I met Tess Rowland, MADD National Director last year and she told me the story about going around to college campuses and doing a survey, and found that was the common theme…”choosing someone who had the least amount of drinks.”  She is embarking on a program to change that mindset on college campuses. 

CALL A RIDE:  As we mentioned, Uber and Lyft are everywhere, and you should have the number of local taxi service in your phone as well. And you can always call a trusted friend. 

KNOW YOUR LIMITS:  If you know you get irresponsible. Give your keys to someone.

THINK OF THE COST: Take a minute to think how your life would change if you drove drunk, got in an accident, and killed somebody, and then got arrested for DUI.  The best way to change your behavior is to not think of “somebody” as a stranger or a statistic… think of them as your spouse or your child. Close your eyes for a minute and think about how you would feel if you killed your spouse or your daughter…..

And… let’s not forget the FINANCIAL cost. The average DUI with court fees and attorney costs is around $10,000. And you lose your driver’s license.  Think about that cost in terms of logistics- how will you go about you days and weeks if you can’t drive to work or to your kid’s school.

As I.ve mentioned before in one of my earlier blogs we had a local tragedy here on Folly Beach last spring where a bride was killed on her wedding night by a drunk driver. She had booked one of our AirBnb’s for some family members for the wedding.   I never met her but the experience hit me hard. I keep a picture of the bride and groom at my desk as a reminder of the cost of driving drunk

Drunk driving….DON’T TO IT !