Health and Fitness : BE SAFE THIS ST. PATRICK’S DAY

St. Patrick’s Day is quickly approaching. Unfortunately, this holiday has become a deadly day with a dramatic spike in drunk-driving fatalities. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2013, 40-percent of all crash fatalities during the St. Patrick’s Day weekend involved drunk drivers, and that number rose to 55-percent in the post-party hours of midnight – 6:00 a.m., of March 18. Almost 75-percent of those fatalities involved drivers who were twice the legal limit. Over the last four years, nationwide, drunk driving kills on average 68 people each St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

Don’t let your St. Patrick’s Day end in tragedy. Before you take your first sip of green beer, make a plan. If you become impaired and don’t have a designated driver, call a friend, relative, cab or use public transportation to get home safely. If you think a cab fare is expensive, consider the average $10,000 expense of getting an OWI, including higher insurance rates, attorney fees, court costs, towing fees, lost wages, and other unanticipated expenses.

Be safe and smart this St. Patrick’s Day holiday! Through a grant the Benton County Sheriff’s will have extra deputies on the roads March 13-17, 2015, with a focus on traffic safety in an effort to reduce collisions, injuries and deaths in Benton County. Whether you’re buzzed or drunk, it doesn’t matter. Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving – drive sober.