St. Patrick's Day is a great time to honor the rich heritage of Irish Americans. In fact, this day has become so popular that many non-Irish people join in on the celebration as well. This is most likely due to the nature of the celebration -- drinking. Very few events experience the mass intoxication associated with St. Patrick's Day. While this can be good fun to enjoy with your friends, it can also create some extremely dangerous road conditions. The risk of being injured in a car accident caused by a drunk driver is significantly higher than normal on St. Patrick's Day. According to the NHTSA, 31 people died in drunk driving accidents on St. Patty's Day in 2013. If you're planning on celebrating St. Patrick's Day, make sure to take the following precautions:
- If you're driving, make sure someone in your group commits to being designated driver
- If you don't have a designated driver, take public transportation or utilize the Bakersfield taxi service to avoid driving drunk
- If you see a friend who is about to drive dunk, take away the keys and call a taxi
- Don't get in a vehicle with a drunk driver
- Buckle your seatbelt to protect yourself in the event that your vehicle is involved in a car accident with a drunk driver
- Make sure all of your guests have a designated driver to get them home
- Serve lots of food to balance the alcohol consumption, and offer lots of non-alcoholic beverages as an alternative
- Stop serving alcohol a few hours before the party ends to give people time to sober up
- If a guest is too drunk to drive home, let them spend the night at your house