Taking the Keys Away

If the champagne will be flowing at your New Year's Eve bash, are you prepared for a guest who has too much to drink?

Being a good host used to mean merely making sure your guests had enough to eat and drink and had a good time. Today it means being a responsible host and, in some cases, a liable one. Many states have social host liability laws, which can hold a party holder legally liable if a guest becomes drunk, gets behind the wheel and injures someone.

Far more people die in alcohol-related traffic crashes on New Year's Eve than on any other mid-week winter evening. The rapid consumption of large amounts of alcohol at New Year's Eve parties is especially dangerous. While New Year's is often the most deadly drunk-driving holiday of the year, there is also a higher percentage of alcohol-related deaths from auto accidents on Labor Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Christmas and Halloween.

Drunk driving accidents are not restricted to holidays, though. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and nonfatally injure someone every two minutes. During 2005, 16,885 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, comprising 39 percent of all traffic-related deaths.

If you're having a New Year's party, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) recommends you serve nonalcoholic drinks for those who prefer not to drink alcoholic ones and you have plenty of food on hand so guests won't drink on an empty stomach. Also, consider having someone serve as bartender to help monitor guests' liquor consumption. Note that young drivers have a higher risk of being involved in alcohol-related crashes.

Also, MADD recommends asking guests to appoint a designated driver before the party begins to make sure those who are driving won't be drinking at the party.

But what happens when a guest becomes drunk despite your best intentions? There is no way to sober someone up quickly. It takes about one hour for the body to metabolize each drink, according to MADD. Drinking black coffee won't sober someone up, but it is a good idea to serve a snack with some nonalcoholic beverage before guests leave. The food and time required to eat can help reduce the effects of alcohol.

Whatever you do - whether it is allowing the intoxicated guest to sleep it off until sober enough to drive home safely, asking someone else to drive or hiring a taxi - do not let your guest drive drunk.

Sometimes that isn't so easy if your guest insists he's OK to drive. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and The Advertising Council's Innocent Victims public service campaign offer some helpful tips and advice on how hosts can get the keys away from a drunk driver:

• If it is a close friend, try to use a soft, understated approach at first. Suggest to your friend that he or she has had too much to drink and it would be better if someone else drove or to take a cab.

• Be calm. Joke about it. Make light of it.

• Try to make it sound like you are doing your friend a favor.

• If it is somebody you don't know well, ask his or her friends to attempt to persuade the guest to hand over the keys. Usually, the individual will listen.

• If you have come with a good friend, spouse or significant other, tell that person that you will not come along if he or she insists on driving. Suggest that you will call someone else for a ride, take a cab or walk home.

• Take away your friend's or spouse's keys while he or she is preoccupied. Most likely, your guest will think the keys are lost and will be forced to find another mode of transportation.

• If possible, avoid embarrassing the person or being confrontational, particularly when dealing with men. This makes them appear uniquely vulnerable to alcohol and its effects and arouses defensiveness and possibly aggression.

External Sources Mothers Against Drunk Drivers National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.

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