The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has some scary Halloween statistics: on Halloween night in 2010, 41 percent of all highway fatalities throughout the nation involved a driver under the influence of alcohol.
Jeremy Faulk, the manager of Dixie Dance Hall on Crockett Street in Downtown Beaumont, was busy Wednesday afternoon getting the club ready for Halloween. Skeletons line the walls and cobwebs hang from mirrors, but it's what may happen outside on the roads tonight that scares him.
"Do NOT drink and drive, there is always somebody that can bring you home, there's always a cab, you always have a friend," Faulk said.
Statistics show that nearly half of highway deaths on Halloween night in 2010 were alcohol-related. Faulk says his bartenders are trained to detect when someone is too drunk and cut them off until they sober up.
"And if that doesn't work we have cab services that basically sit in the street. We call Yellowcab frequently to get them out here," he said.
Yellowcab Beaumont manager Darreck Foreman said last Halloween was a busy night for his drivers, and expects this one to be busy as well, saying, "It's one of those nights people are out at costume parties, haunted houses, different things like that...the kids are out, and most important is to protect the kids to make sure that people aren't on the road that are driving unsafely."
So, Faulk says, drive safely tonight, and if you go out for a drink...plan ahead. He reminds us there's always an option: "Your mother will always come get you, my mom's been telling me that for 33 years now, she still tells me that, and she will."
Department of Public Safety Trooper Stephanie Davis said troopers worked 6 traffic accidents in Orange and Jefferson counties last Halloween, one of which was alcohol-related.
