Plan while you can. That is what TxDOT is urging people to do before celebrating the 4th of July.
Dianah Ascencio said campaigns and events like Saturday's encourage drivers to make a plan on how to get home if they are planning to drink.
"We encourage people to have a designated sober driver, that doesn't mean the person that has had the fewest amount of drinks, that's a person that has had not one drink at all," Ascencio said. "They can use mass transit, they can use a ride sharing app, we actually have a website that they can go to, soberrides.org, or they can make plans to stay wherever they're at instead of having to get behind the wheel and endangering themselves and other people on the road."
Even though the blood alcohol limit is .08, Ascencio said any amount of alcohol can affect your ability to drive and law enforcement can still arrest you.
"A DUI can cost a person upwards of $17,000 when you take into account bail, court cost, an increase in your insurance premium, loss of work, then losing, having your driver license suspended, so losing the ability to drive," she said.
Karen Brown from TxDOT said the key to not getting a DUI is to plan ahead.
"We ask them to plan if they know they are going to be drinking," Brown said. "Make sure they maybe have a taxi ride that they've called ahead of time to pick them up at a certain location at a certain time or even have that designated driver that someone is going to be responsible enough, not to drink and that they can be a sober ride for that person."
She said, though the consequences of getting a DUI are bad, it is better than the alternative.
"We don't want anybody to be arrested with a DWI but at the same time, for their safety and for the safety of the traveling public, you know, I mean it's a good thing we're able to get them off the road," she said.
One of the ways TxDOT is educating people about the dangers of driving under the influence is through simulations.
In 2015, 960 people were killed in car crashes where a driver was under the influence of alcohol. that made up 27 percent of last years traffic fatalities.
TxDOT is hoping campaigns like, Plan While You Can, will lower that number.
