DVD - The following is an excerpt from:
Seminar Series #7: (52 min.)
"Drinking And Driving"
Your Role As A Responsible Server/Bartender. Understanding your legal obligations and tips on how to handle difficult situations.

"Just don't." - Michael Root

As a bartender and an active part of this industry, I am also an active part of a partial solution to the problem of drinking and driving.

• 40-50% of all drivers killed on the roads were impaired at the time of the accident. 
• Half of all alcohol related traffic accidents occur between 11 pm and 3 am. (Last call)
• In North America it is estimated that 1-5 drivers have been drinking and 1 in 10 are legally impaired on any Friday or Saturday night. 

ALCOHOL AWARENESS - WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Ways to help prevent drunk driving

• Bartender can: suggest that the patron leave his or her car keys with the manager, who will ensure that the car is not towed away.
• Offer to call a cab.
• Offer to call a friend or relative who will agree to drive the customer home.
• Encourage sober friends to drive the guest home.
• Promote a designated driver program.
• Install a taxi phone and/or have parking stalls reserved outside the main door for them.
• Promote the safe ride program offered in your city...or start your own.
• Encourage staff awareness.
• If the patron refuses all of the above suggestions and still insists that he is not too intoxicated to drive home, inform your manager of the efforts you have made to provide alternative transportation. Your manager might intervene and inform the patron that the police may have to be called. This can be done anonymously, but this threat must be made with the full intention of following through if necessary.

WHY SHOULD WE GO TO ALL THIS TROUBLE TO PREVENT DRINKING AND DRIVING?

• MORAL OBLIGATION:
  As a bartender or server you are involved and you have a moral obligation to take care of the people you serve and profit from. When people drink, they lose the ability to make good decisions as well as their reflexes and you help them get that way. You also have an obligation to protect innocent people from any harm the customer you over served might cause before he/she sobers up. A little effort on your part can really make a difference. How would you feel if one of your customers drove drunk and killed a woman and her baby?
  
  
• LEGAL OBLIGATION:
  If you don’t agree that you have a moral obligation (and some people don’t), read on. In North America when a lawsuit is filed against a bar or restaurant and over service is the claim, the bartender or server will be personally liable also. It happens. Check your local liquor laws or ask your police. YOU can be held PERSONALLY responsible.

IF I GO OUT OF MY WAY TO KEEP A CUSTOMER FROM DRIVING DRUNK, WILL I STILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF AN ACCIDENT HAPPENS?

Maybe. Sorry, but that’s the best answer I can give you. This chapter on drinking and driving is not legal advice nor is it intended to be. This chapter is meant to inform and warn you that the bartender can no longer say, "I just work here." and walk away. You’re involved in the issue of drunk driving whether you like it or not.

REASONABLE MAN THEORY

All hope is not lost. Many western laws are based upon this theory. The basis of it is quite simple. What would a “reasonable” average, everyday, sane man (or woman) do in a particular situation. For example, if i'm a bartender and you come into my bar and get incredibly intoxicated I cut you off and try to convince you to take a cab. You refuse (laughing in my face) but I try to convince your friends to take care of you (at this point you have none). I persuade you into a cab outside and buckle you in. The cab moves 6 feet when you hop out again and head for your car, laughing all the way. I run after you, persuade/carry you to my car, drive you home, tuck you in, read you a bedtime story (Dr. Suess ,GREEN EGGS AND HAM, my favorite), give you milk and cookies and turn out the light so that I can go take care of my other customers. You then get out of bed and drive your roommate’s car into a 7-Eleven and sue my bar and me. Whew! Well, chances are pretty good if I’ve done all that, I’ll be OK legally. The point I want to make is that there are no guarantees because the bartender who served you and the bar you were served in are responsible for you until you sober up. Check your local laws and serve responsibly!