Ensure a Fun and Safe St. Patrick's Day

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Labor Day. New Year's Eve. The Fourth of July. Each of these is a popular American holiday where friends gather to celebrate and let their hair down. Included in that category is St. Patrick's Day, a holiday that, even if you've never danced an Irish jig or kissed the Blarney Stone, invites one and all to enjoy a pint of green beer and a plate of corned beef. A less inviting aspect of St. Patrick's Day, however, is the tendency for celebrations to get out of control, mainly in the form of celebrants drinking too much, a scary side of the holiday that has led to it being one of the most dangerous celebrations of the year.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), St. Patrick's Day is one of the deadliest holidays in terms of drunk-driving fatalities. In 2004, 45.5 percent of the traffic fatalities in the week of St. Patrick's Day were alcohol-related. That's a higher percentage than New Year's Eve and Thanksgiving, and only slightly less than Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, a pair of holidays known to involve heavy alcohol consumption. Such a history sets a dangerous precedent for this month's St. Patrick's Day, making it all the more important that celebrants heed the advice of local law enforcement and take steps to ensure no one has their celebration turn tragic.

* Assign a designated driver. This is perhaps the best step you can take to ensuring your St. Patty's Day partying will be safe this year. It could be difficult to enlist volunteers, especially when it seems as though everyone around is enjoying a drink or two, so rotating designated drivers each year or for each holiday is a good system. For instance, if someone acts as the designated driver on New Year's Eve, then that person is exempt from the responsibility come St. Patty's Day. Such a system still allows everyone to go out and celebrate (food and Irish music is as much a tradition on St. Patrick's Day as drinking) while also ensuring everyone will ultimately make it home safely.

* Eat, eat and eat some more. Every St. Patrick's Day celebration features an abundance of food, which is a great means to keep you from overdoing it with alcohol. If you're really in the spirit of celebrating the holiday, start off with an Irish breakfast in the morning, complete with Irish sausages, Irish bacon, black pudding, potatoes and eggs, among other things. An Irish breakfast will fill you up, keeping you from drinking too much, especially if you plan on heading to an afternoon parade. Another traditional meal that most establishments serve is corned beef and cabbage, a filling dish in its own right that will also limit the amount of alcohol your stomach can hold.

* Alternate alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks. Many people wait until the end of the night to have a glass of water so they can avoid feeling hungover the next morning. But a good way to make sure you stay in control throughout the evening (and feel better the next morning) is to alternate alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages while celebrating. For instance, if you finish a pint of beer, make your next drink a glass of water. This is a good means of pacing yourself and ensuring you will have a longer, more enjoyable evening.

* Steer clear of shots of hard liquor and drinking games. Since it is St. Patrick's Day, you won't need any games to get you in the mood to have a good time. Also, games typically require that you drink large amounts of alcohol in short periods of time, a bad idea for anyone, let alone someone hoping to drink responsibly. Hard liquor does the same. Many people are aware that a shot of hard liquor is roughly equivalent to 12 ounces of beer. Avoiding shots will allow you to extend your evening and have more fun.

* Understand the consequences. Particularly in recent years, the penalties for drunk driving have increased dramatically. Automobile insurance companies have strict punishments should you be convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol. In a 2004 study, the Automobile Club of Southern California found that a motorist convicted of DUI for the first time in California can expect to pay a total cost of more than $12,000. These include fines, court fees, legal fees and an increase in insurance that, the study found, averaged $7,300 annually. All the way across the country in New Jersey, that state's Division of Motor Vehicles imposes an immediate mandatory insurance surcharge of between $3,000 and $3,500, not to mention an additional $1,000 surcharge in each of the three years following a conviction.

Such laws are sobering to say the least and might be your greatest deterrent to acting irresponsibly this St. Patrick's Day. To learn more about how you can ensure a safe St. Patrick's Day celebration for you and your friends this year, visit the National Commission Against Drunk Driving Web site at www.ncadd.com.