The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and several area restaurants and pizza shops are teaming up to deliver the message for people to think before they drink ahead of this Sunday's Super Bowl LVII matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. This effort ties into a national impaired driving enforcement campaign to keep drivers and partygoers safe on the roads that continues through Sunday, February 12.
The message that "Fans Don't Let Fans Drive Drunk," urges the public to be designated drivers or help plan smart transportation options for friends and family to make it home safely from Super Bowl gatherings.
The following restaurants will participate by sharing this message on fliers distributed with each to-go order placed between today and Sunday after the game:
- Best Way Pizza locations in Altoona, Duncansville, Ebensburg, Hollidaysburg, and Huntingdon
- Cobrh's Lounge, Altoona
- D'Ottavio's Italian House, Hollidaysburg
If you are hosting or attending a party or heading out to a restaurant and your night involves drinking alcohol, PennDOT offers the following tips:
- Take your role as designated driver seriously — people are relying on you. Refrain from any alcoholic beverages or other drugs.
- Always buckle your seat belt and require any passengers to do the same. Don't start the car until all passengers' seat belts are buckled.
- If someone you know has been drinking and tries to drive, take their keys, and help them get home safely. They may complain, but they'll thank you later.
- Ask your guests to designate their sober drivers in advance.
- Encourage your drinking guests to pace themselves, eat food, and drink plenty of water.
- Serve a selection of nonalcoholic drinks.
- Do not serve alcohol to minors. If an underage person drinks and drives, the person who provided the alcohol can be held liable for any damage, injury, or death caused by the underage driver. In fact, you can face jail time if you host a party where alcohol is served to people under the age of 21.
Impaired driving is a serious problem with serious consequences. Don't become another statistic. According to 2022 PennDOT data, there were 348 crashes on Super Bowl Sunday. Of those crashes 46 of them involved a driver who had been drinking, resulting in one fatality.
Subscribe to PennDOT news in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, and Somerset counties at www.PennDOT.pa.gov/District9.
Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.
511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional Twitter alerts.
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