A person is killed every 51 minutes in a drunk-driving crash in the United States, on average. The majority of these crashes involve drunk drivers who nearly have twice the legal blood alcohol concentration.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety, over 700 people were killed nationwide in crashes involving drunk drivers during St. Patrick’s Day holiday weekends between 2006 and 2010. Last year in Iowa, there were 16,279 traffic violations reported by 234 law enforcement agencies with more than 1,600 officers working over the holiday weekend.

Please remember to have a designated sober driver during before the St. Patrick’s Day festivities commence.