Don’t Let Your Friend Drive Drunk: Consider These 3 Tips

Having a friend who is struggling with alcohol issues can be a nightmare. It’s important that you get them the professional help they need, but in the meantime, ensure that they are not putting you, themselves, or anyone else in danger. Here are a few ways you can help prevent your troubled friend from getting behind the wheel after drinking.

Encourage them to get a car breathalyzer installed

The trouble with dealing with an individual who is a problem drinker and a potential threat to drive drunk is that they are reasonable while sober but completely unreasonable as soon as they are drinking. If you talk to your friend when he or she is sober and let them know how worried you are about them when they drink, they might agree to using a car breathalyzer. The majority of ignition interlock devices will prompt the driver to perform a rolling retest five to 15 minutes after the vehicle and then randomly throughout the rest of the trip, ensuring that the user can’t cheat the system by having someone else start the car for them.

Drive their car home for them instead

You don’t want your friend to take advantage of you by offering to drive them all the time, but it’s better than letting him or her drive home under the influence. If they are drinking, grab their keys, drive them home, and let them know how unfair they are being the next day. Hopefully they will realize how bad of a friend they are being and they will get professional help.

Call them a cab or someone else to drive them

Often, if you’re out to dinner or enjoying a drink or two and your friend is with you, you can’t offer to drive them because you’ve been drinking as well. If this is the case you should contact a cab, ride service, or another friend who can drive both of you home. Again, don’t let your friend always rely on you to make the call, but if it’s your only option, go for it. Hopefully your friend will soon realize he or she has a problem and needs to stop drinking.

The best way to prevent drunk driving is to have them not drink at all, but if that’s not an option at this point, try having them install a interlock device, drive for them, or regularly call them a cab. If you want to show your friend some car breathalyzer prices, contact QuickStart Ignition Interlock today.