Every year, the winter holiday brings a lot of excitement – but some people seem determined to find most of their seasonal cheer at the bottom of the bottle. Since nearly every party or social gathering at this time of the year involves some kind of alcohol, binge drinking is pretty epidemic during the whole holiday season.
“Seasonal drinkers” sometimes get called “practice drunks,” and they’re often considered more likely to cause drunk driving accidents.
Why would this happen?
To be perfectly clear, experienced drinkers who decide to hit the road after having a few are also putting themselves and others at risk of great harm.
However, social drinkers and binge drinkers may be more prone to getting behind the wheel while inebriated because:
- They fail to plan ahead. Their lack of experience with their own bodily limits and alcohol tolerance levels may make them think that they can easily have a couple of glasses of wine, sober up and drive home at the end of a party. Because they don’t anticipate getting drunk in the first place, they don’t think to take an Uber or arrange for a designated driver.
- They don’t realize they’re drunk. Studies have shown that people are terrible at determining exactly how inebriated they are – and that ability to judge deteriorates further with each drink.
- They think they’re sober compared to others. Humans constantly draw comparisons between themselves and others, and folks who have been drinking often “feel sober” compared to their more inebriated friends. Someone who has only had a few drinks may genuinely think they’re fine to drive when they compare themselves to a buddy who is falling over tables.
Hopefully, you and all whom you love will stay safe this holiday season – but drunk drivers are everywhere. If you do end up in a wreck, legal guidance can help you assert your right to fair compensation for your losses.