(Undated)– Regardless of the weather, there likely will be a lot of celebrations going on over the weekend just prior to St. Patrick’s Day. When it comes to that, Kevin Krull of the Iowa State Patrol says the holiday and the days leading up to it can be problematic when it comes to drunk driving…
“I would put it up there with the 4th of July and New Year’s Eve as far as increased drinking because everybody’s talking about green beer and all this stuff. It’s one of those deals, and unfortunately last March, just the month of March alone, we had 148 crashes that were directly attributed to alcohol or alcohol type of activities, and of those 148, we also had five fatalities last March. So it’s still a big deal, and people need to raise their awareness once again for this time period to understand that there’s going to be some drinking going on and plan ahead for it.”
Krull says you can expect see additional law enforcement on the roads…
“Especially those areas that are seeing that influx like the Emmetsburg area is one of the big ones in this area. So Palo Alto county, we’re partnering up with that department down there. And safe driving takes more than luck is kind of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau’s theme this year. I still like the theme of don’t rely on the luck of the Irish to get you home. You need to plan ahead and start that planning now and who’s going to be your designated driver, who’s going to get you there safe and who’s going to get you home safer?”
And when it comes to that, Krull says there’s a special incentive available…
“Doll Distributing is offering a free $10 Uber voucher. You go to the GTSB website and you can find that voucher application there or the information to get that, and that’s good for this weekend. It’s just one more way that people are saying we want you to be safe, we want you to plan to be safe and we want you to use those facilities and those options that are out there. And most of us have that one friend that we can call on, no matter what, that will get us home safely. We just have to reach out to them and understand that this my go-to. And one other thing to be smart is have that backup plan for that person.”
Krull adds that motorists also need to be aware of the predictions for a potentially significant winter storm this weekend and to plan accordingly.
