Many Americans look forward to Thanksgiving for a variety of reasons. After all, it does kick off the holiday season, and it’s often regarded as one of the best days of the year.
Most see it as an opportunity to spend time with family, especially for those who live and work far from home.
There’s also great food, with the turkey alone worth the year-long wait for the holiday.
Unfortunately, Thanksgiving often means drinking binges for many, as holiday gatherings typically serve plenty of alcohol.
While it’s normal to imbibe beer and other alcoholic beverages while celebrating the holidays, things are going to take a drastic turn for the worse if you decide to drive while intoxicated, effectively endangering your life and those of pedestrians, other motorists, and your passengers.
A DUI arrest over Thanksgiving will surely mess up your holiday season. If you hold a commercial driver’s license and get arrested for drunk driving, you can expect to face rather harsh DUI penalties.
If you don’t like the idea of spending Thanksgiving night behind bars, here are some tips that will help you avoid a DUI arrest over the holidays.
Have A Designated Driver
Chances are, one of your adult friends or relatives don’t drink, even on major holidays like Thanksgiving. You can talk to that person and ask him or her to be your designated driver for the night so that you won’t have to worry about driving yourself home with an elevated blood alcohol concentration level.
If all your loved ones are likely to partake, you might have to beg (or even bribe) one of them to sacrifice alcohol just for the night and be your designated driver, so good luck on that front.
Take A Cab
If there’s a taxi service in your hometown, all you have to do is make that one call, and a cab will come for you in a little while and drive you to your hotel or wherever it is that you want to go.
Use A Ride-Hailing Service
It’s the 21st century, and ride-hailing apps are already a common thing. If you have such apps on your phone, use any one of them to book a ride, or have a friend do it for you if you’ve had too much to drink.
Be Aware of Holiday DUI Checkpoints
If for whatever reason, you still get behind the wheel after a few drinks, you should at least be aware of the location and schedules of holiday DUI checkpoints, which police set up to deter drunk drivers.
Given that the authorities are required to notify the public about the times and places of DUI checkpoints, it would serve you well to monitor TV newscasts and local newspapers and law enforcement websites in the days leading to Thanksgiving. That way, you can avoid those DUI traps.
Don’t Drink & Drive At All
There’s no better way to avoid a Thanksgiving DUI arrest than to eschew drinking and driving altogether.
Understandably, avoiding alcohol during such a joyous gathering is going to be difficult. However, if you think hard about the consequences of drunk driving—from the DUI charge you will likely face if arrested to the guilt of hurting someone in an alcohol-related accident—the idea of not drinking and driving wouldn’t seem to be that bad at all.
Then again, you can always drink as much alcohol as you want at the Thanksgiving parties you attend. Just don’t even think about getting behind the wheel any time after that. That’s the best way of steering clear of a DUI arrest during the holiday season.