Driving down the road on a weekday morning, you might assume you’re safe from drunken drivers. The S.C. Highway Patrol, however, has noticed a trend that might make you think differently.
“We used to only see DUIs on Friday, Saturday, Sunday night — late at night when the bars let out, that’s when you saw your impaired drivers,” S.C. Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Sonny Collins said. “Now, we see them on Wednesday afternoons, Tuesday mornings, any day of the week, any time of the day.”
The highway patrol doesn’t have the numbers to confirm this trend in the state yet, but it’s one it has noticed statewide during the past two or three years, Collins said.
He suggests a few reasons why folks are driving impaired during the day.
“It may be your morning round golfers who were drinking while playing golf, then leaving the golf course in the middle of the day. It may be college students somewhere that have consumed alcohol and partied over night, then gotten a couple hours of sleep and now they’re back out,” Collins said.
The Diamond Cabs of Myrtle Beach General Manager Josh Rauzi, said it’s been going on for as long as he can remember.
“People start early, they get out, they start really early,” he said. “Around 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock in the afternoon, you do get those phone calls where people are pretty intoxicated.”
The issue of drunken driving is personal for Rauzi.
His father died in a drunken driving crash that left Rauzi, then 13, in foster care off and on throughout his teens.
“He was a very good person. He just chose to get in the vehicle when he was (drinking) that day, which was a very bad decision — ended up costing him his life, and it could happen to anybody,” he said.
Rauzi has made it his mission to keep others safe on the road.
Diamond Cabs offers a Safe Ride program on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, giving free cab rides to those too intoxicated to drive home.
Now, Rauzi works to find a way to offer the service year-round.
“We’ll take you home. When you get home, we’ll give the keys back to you. The next day or when you sober up, you can call us to come get you, or have a friend take you to get your car — no harm, no foul,” he said.
For more information on Diamond Cabs, call (843) 448-8888.
In Florence, Redbone Alley also offers a free Safe Ride service for its customers. Red Rover will get customers and their cars home safe after a night out. For more information on its program, call (843) 673-0035.
Meanwhile, the highway patrol reminds all drivers to call *HP at any time of the day to report a driver who may be impaired.
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