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Drinking and Driving

If you know someone may drive drunk, you know the importance of intervening before that person gets behind the wheel.

How You Can Intervene

Below are some helpful tips to get the keys away from a drunk driver:

• If the person is a close friend, try to use a soft, calm approach at first. Suggest that he's had too much to drink and it would be better to let someone else drive or to take a cab.
• Be calm. Joke about it. Make light of it.
• Try to make it sound like you are doing him a favor.
• If the person is somebody you don't know well, speak to his friends and have them make an attempt to persuade him to hand over the keys. Usually, he will listen.
• If the person is a good friend, spouse or significant other, tell him that if he insists on driving, you are not going with him. Tell him that you will call someone else for a ride, take a cab or walk.
• Locate the person's keys while he is preoccupied and take them away. Most likely, he will think he's lost his keys and will be forced to find another mode of transportation.
• If possible, avoid embarrassing the person or being confrontational. This makes him appear vulnerable to alcohol and its effects.