Choices are like dominos. When you make one decision, it triggers the reaction for other situations to occur.
Taking certain paths can affect your finances, your relationships, your friendships and your career. Drunk driving is one such choice that continues to affect countless lives. Every day, drunk drivers get behind the wheel when they know they should not.
Here are some sobering facts: In 2015 there were 10,265 people killed in drunk driving crashes. That averages one death every 51 minutes.
Among those killed, 37 percent (3,841) were not the drunk driver. Among those crashes, 67 percent involved a driver nearly twice the legal limit of .08 BAC.
Two paths one night. Enjoy a night out with friends in the immersive and interactive Last Call 360 web experience. Explore the bar to play games and have conversations. Keep exploring to see where the night takes you. Check it out now at nhtsa.gov/lastcall.
NHTSA has worked with many partners, including MADD, to collectively bring alcohol-impaired driving fatalities down, but it’s not enough. We need to reach drivers on a new level, which is why we’re pulling out all of the stops as part of this year’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign.
Today, I offer you a simple glimpse into a possible, tragic future you can choose to prevent through Last Call 360.
Using virtual technology, NHTSA created a bar scene through an interactive 360º video website that uses photospheres, cinema graphs, videos, and gaming. You can access it for free from your mobile phone, computer or tablet.
During your visit, you’ll be able to interact with virtual bar patrons, play games, watch videos, order virtual alcoholic drinks and, most importantly, see the consequences of drinking and driving. You might recognize the bartender, it’s YouTube personality, Matthew Patrick (MatPat)
Once you make the decision to ‘move on’ from the virtual bar and get behind the wheel after having consumed alcoholic drinks, you’ll see the flashing lights of law enforcement.
Based on your IP address, the experience culminates by revealing the state-level consequences of driving impaired.
This experience provides the chance to see that your decisions have far-reaching consequences beyond you—affecting many others in your life as well.
My hope is that this glimpse into your imaginable future will open your eyes in the present and show you that one person (the decisions you make) can make a difference.
Remember, drunk driving crashes are no accident – they are 100-percent preventable and connect back to our choices and errors. NHTSA’s gift to you this holiday season is perspective – a chance to change the future by taking action today.
Please share this experience. Learn from this experience. In the words of Charles Dickens, “No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.”
There’s no excuse. Put the keys away and grab a sober friend, call a taxi, take public transportation home or use our SaferRide app. Law enforcement will be out nationwide this holiday season, pulling over drunk drivers to protect the public.
(Courtesy of US DOT NHTSA and YouTube)
Poor judgment does not discriminate by gender. Be responsible and find a sober ride home. Ask a friend, call a taxi, or take public transportation. Drunk driving is a deadly epidemic that takes the lives of 10,000 people each year, on average. Don’t listen to the woman in the mirror. Drive sober or get pulled over.
Happy Holidays from our NHTSA family to yours.
Want a safe and convenient way to get home? Download the NHTSA SaferRide app to help you identify your location and call a taxi or a friend for a ride home.
Too drunk to drive means too drunk for complicated apps.
SaferRide is the simplest possible way to get home safe and only has three self-explanatory buttons on the Home screen.
- Choose from a list of available taxi services in your area, and with the tap of a button call them.
- Call a pre-programmed contact.
- If you just need to know where you are, you can bring up a map of your current location.
SaferRide was developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA is dedicated to saving lives by reducing the number of deaths and injuries on our nation’s roadways.
Each year on average, more than 10,000 people are killed by drunk drivers.
So please help end drunk driving by doing your part: don’t drive if you’ve been drinking. Use NHTSA’s SaferRide app to get home safely.
The SaferRide app is available for Android devices on Google Play, and Apple devices on the iTunes store.
Enjoy your holiday and please stay safe.
Two paths one night. Enjoy a night out with friends in the immersive and interactive Last Call 360 web experience. Explore the bar to play games and have conversations.
Keep exploring to see where the night takes you.
