Highway Patrol recommends making a plan before drinking

OKLAHOMA CITY – Last year during the Independence Day holiday period, 30 people were injured and 5 people died as a result of 103 traffic crashes involving a driver who had an alcohol or drug-related condition in Oklahoma, the Highway Patrol reports.

If you’re planning on drinking this holiday period:

• Plan transportation before you go anywhere alcohol will be served.

• Host events at home, or stay overnight where the event is being hosted.

• Keep cab or public transportation telephone numbers readily available.

• Download NHTSA’s SaferRide App (available for both Apple and Android devices).

If you aren’t planning on drinking this holiday period, reach out to your friends and family through social media and offer to be a designated driver. You never know when this small gesture could save someone’s life.

Even if you’re being safe, others may not be, so pay extra attention to your surroundings. If you suspect someone has had too much to drink, here are some ways you can intervene:

• Tell the person they have had too much to drink and need to find an alternative way to get home.

• If you don’t know the person well, speak to their friends and ask them to intervene.

• If you went somewhere with this person, do not leave with them. Insist that you will call someone else for a ride, take a cab or walk.

• If necessary, take the keys away and find a safe ride home or a safe place for this person to stay.

• If you see a driver you suspect is under the influence call *55 or 911 to report it.

Celebrate your Independence Day by staying out of jail this holiday. Local, county and state law enforcement agencies will be joining together in statewide impaired driving enforcement teams. These teams will be conducting sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols throughout the state in an effort to keep impaired drivers from injuring or killing innocent motorists.

“Since establishing these enforcement teams late last year, law enforcement agencies throughout the state have demonstrated their commitment to ENDUI in Oklahoma,” said Col. Rick Adams, chief of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. “They’ll be out again during the Independence Day holiday period to continue their efforts.”

For more information on what you can do to ENDUI this Independence Day, visit enduiok.com