The Kickham Comment - Boston Criminal Attorney Blog
Amid all the Super Bowl hype, try to remember something: Aside from New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo, Super Bowl Sunday is one the drunkest days of the year. Worse still, the number of inebriated people who get behind the wheel after drinking at a Super Bowl party or similar event, is extremely high. Doing so is just plain foolish, but a lot of people do it , thinking that they’re not “really drunk”, or that the odds of them being stopped by police is low.
As a Wrentham Massachusetts OUI attorney I can assure you, that is not so: The number of police patrols on the road this day have been increased dramatically – both in Massachusetts and across the country. There are DUI checkpoints set up at strategic locations, and police will be watching.
Here are a few interesting facts about DUI and Super Bowl Sunday:
1 – According to BACtrack, one of the better-known manufacturers of smartphone-enabled breathalyzers that allow a user to monitor his or her blood alcohol content (BAC), users of its products during Super Bowl 2016 recorded a substantially higher average BAC than on a typical Sunday. (No surprise there.) BACtrack states that 43 percent of its customers decided to purchase the device in order to avoid getting arrested for DUI/OUI, or, ostensibly, for safety purposes to get an idea if they’re under the legal limit when they drive.
2 – While a BAC of .08 is the legal limit in Massachusetts and other states for driving, signs of impairment can show up at much lower levels than that, according to a special message that Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has published about Super Bowl Sunday parties.
3 – It’s no surprise that a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirms that Super Bowl Sunday is a big problem when it comes to drunk driving. NHTSA has a “Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk” campaign just for this year’s Super Bowl: https://www.nhtsa.gov/something-think-about.
4 – Reflecting smart marketing and perfect timing, the ride-sharing company Uber recently launched a campaign to encourage people to not drink & drive. According to the website www.tumblr.com, Ubder has made discount coupons available to people who have been drinking and are concerned they may have had too much. Click here to learn more.
Having fun at a Super Bowl party doesn’t have to end in trouble. So be smart – and don’t make today “Stupor Bowl Sunday” for yourself or anyone else.