When the weekend comes around, many people enjoy going out to the local pub or dance club with friends. It’s an opportunity to kick back, loosen up a little and enjoy plenty of laughter and wild stories with your best buddies.
One conversation that many young adults don’t want to have before heading out is, how are we going to get home safely? While it may seem that starting the night with such a serious conversation can be a buzz-kill, nothing will ruin your mood more quickly than ending a night of fun with a DUI or a deadly car crash. In fact, choosing a designated driver among your group is a wise choice. In fact, it is estimated that designated drivers have saved over 50,000 lives by preventing drunk driving accidents.
Designated drivers are real-life heroes
It’s important to understand that a designated driver is not the “most sober” one of the group, nor is it someone who starts drinking earlier and quits well ahead of final call. A designated driver is someone who consciously chooses to remain sober for the entire night so they can safely drive everyone else home at the end of the evening.
It can be helpful to rotate the responsibility of being the designated driver among your group of friends. That being said, it’s important to choose someone whom you can count on to follow through with their agreement. It can be helpful to hand the keys over to this person at the beginning of the night to avoid an argument later, and the rest of the crew might want to consider springing for gas money and buying dinner to show love to the friend who promises to put their safety first.
Even though it is wise to let your designated driver bring you home, sometimes we make bad decisions when we are under the influence of alcohol. If you took the risk to drink and drive yourself home and were pulled over and arrested for DUI, it’s a good idea to work with someone to build a defense or mitigate the consequences of your choices.
