As NCAA Tournament And St. Patrick's Day Collide, AAA Warns Philly Area

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- St. Patrick’s Day has become one of the nation’s deadliest holidays for drunk drivers.

For many, it's a day-long celebration with family and friends, often involving alcohol consumption. Unfortunately, this can also lead to a large volume of impaired drivers making the day a very dangerous one, AAA says.

This year St. Patrick’s Day falls on the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Opening weekend of the annual sporting event begins Thursday and continues through Sunday, bringing together college basketball fans which often involves parties and alcohol consumption. Three Philadelphia-area teams are going to the big dance, as St, Joseph's, Temple, and Villanova all play on Friday.

“The consequences of driving impaired are not worth the risks," said Jana L. Tidwell, Manager of Public and Government Affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Drunk driving can result in death, jail time, the loss of your driver’s license, and higher insurance rates, as well as dozens of other unanticipated expenses ranging from attorney fees, court costs, lost wages, and vehicle towing and repairs. Make sure you designate a sober driver, call a taxi or take public transportation to ensure you get you home safely."

During St. Patrick's Day in 2014, more than a quarter of all motor vehicle crash fatalities involved drunk drivers, AAA said.

And early hours of March 18 were even worse: between midnight and 5:59 a.m., nearly half of all crash fatalities involved drunk drivers.

In fact, from 2010 to 2014, almost three-fourths of the drunk-driving fatalities during this holiday period involved drivers who had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) well above the .08 legal limit, accordign to AAA.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) reports that in 2014, there were 333 alcohol-related deaths as a result of crashes in Pennsylvania.

AAA Mid-Atlantic offers the following steps for those out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and the NCAA basketball tournament:

• Before heading out the door to a house party or favorite pub, decide whether you’ll drink or you’ll drive – you can’t do both.
• If you will drink, designate a sober, reliable driver to get you home safely or plan to call a taxi, sober friend or family member, or use public transportation.
• If you plan on driving, commit to staying sober.
• If you see a driver on the road that you suspect is impaired, pull over to a safe spot and call 911, giving police a description of the vehicle.
• If you see people who are about to drive while impaired, take their keys and help them make other arrangements to get to where they are going safely.