VIPD To Motoring Public: This Holiday Season – Drive Sober Or Get Pulled Over!

FREDERIKSTED — The Virgin Islands Police Department and Virgin Islands Office of Highway Safety encourage motorists to have a plan this holiday season, whether driving, riding, or hosting holiday festivities.

If you are celebrating and drinking, always remember to plan and designate a sober driver to take you home. If you are the designated driver, it is important to take the role seriously and do not consume alcohol. Here are some more safety tips:

• Don’t Drink and Drive.
• Don’t let someone get behind the wheel if that person has been drinking.
• If you’re hosting a gathering, make sure that everyone has a sober ride home.
• Always wear your seat belt. It’s your best defense against impaired drivers.
• If you see an impaired driver on the roadways, call 911.

Even one drink is enough to impair your driving ability. It can put you and others at risk by impairing your visual functions, concentration, judgment, and muscle coordination. Driving impaired, whether you are drowsy or under the influence of alcohol or drugs, has devastating consequences, and is illegal in every state and territory.

This holiday season, let us work together to keep everyone safe on the roads – Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over!

John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.