You can prevent a DUI by taking the car keys away from a friend, family member, or someone who appears to be under the influence of alcohol. Follow these key collecting tips provided by the U.S Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
GET THE KEYS: How You Can Intervene
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Advertising Council’s Innocent Victims public service campaign emphasizes the need to intervene and get the keys away from someone about to drive drunk. Here are some helpful tips and advice from focus group research on how people can get the keys away from a drunk driver.
- If it is a close friend, try and use a soft, calm approach at first. Suggest to them that they’ve had too much to drink and it would be better if someone else drove or if they took a cab.
- Be calm. Joke about it. Make light of it.
- Try to make it sound like you are doing them a favor.
- If it is somebody you don’t know well, speak to their friends and have them make an attempt to persuade them to hand over the keys. Usually they will listen.
- If it’s a good friend, spouse, or significant other, tell them that if they insist on driving, you are not going with them. Suggest that you will call someone else for a ride, take a cab, or walk.
- Locate their keys while they are preoccupied and take them away. Most likely, they will think they’ve lost them and will be forced to find another mode of transportation.
- If possible, avoid embarrassing the person or being confrontational, particularly when dealing with men. This makes them appear vulnerable to alcohol and its effects.
If you have any questions about how to prevent a DUI or if you have recently been charged with a DUI, call David O Defense, 206-459-6392. Our DUI lawyers are here to help!
