Super Bowl 53: Fans don’t let fans drive drunk
Published 4:37 am Sunday, February 3, 2019
Football fans across the country are gearing up to celebrate America’s most-watched sporting event, Super Bowl LIII, on Sunday.
For many, the Super Bowl celebration will include drinking alcohol, so the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety (KOHS) is teaming with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk reminder urging football fans to call the right play by passing the keys to a sober driver.
“Drunken driving-related crashes are 100 percent preventable,” said KOHS acting Executive Director Jason Siwula. “The solution is simple: make the right choice and plan for a designated driver before the party begins.”
Drunken driving can be deadly. With a blood-alcohol concentration of .08 or higher, a driver is considered alcohol-impaired, but even a small amount of alcohol can impair judgment and reaction times enough to make driving unsafe.
According to NHTSA, 10,874 people in the United States were killed in crashes that involved an impaired driver in 2017.
“These are not just numbers,” Siwula said. “These are people, and any number above 0 is unacceptable.”
In addition, NHTSA’s SaferRide Mobile App is another resource to help fans who have been drinking find a sober ride home by identifying their location and helping to call a taxi or a friend to pick them up. The app is available for Android devices on Google Play and Apple devices on the iTunes store.
“Driving impaired is never worth the risk,” Siwula said. “With so many sober ride options – public transportation, taxis, ride booking programs – there is no excuse.”