How to Skip the Valentine’s Day DUI Arrest This Year

Are you planning an evening for two this Valentine’s Day? Plenty of people are, and most of them have a good idea of how they’d like the evening to end up. That scene does not include a jail cell.

Nevertheless, a Valentine’s Day DUI arrest is more common than you’d think – it’s a night of celebration, and wine (and often champagne) are uncorked to slow down the moment and set the mood. But the planning that goes into a romantic evening often doesn’t include a safe ride home.

Here are some ways you can plan a night that ends the way you want it to – without fingerprinting, jail, bail, fines, and court dates:

• Choose a restaurant within walking distance. If the weather is going to cooperate, make a romantic hand-in-hand walk part of the evening.
• Dine in. It doesn’t sound romantic, but it can be. Where did you put those candles anyway?
• Get dropped off. If you don’t drive to the restaurant, you can’t drive back. It’s all in the planning.
• Skip the wine. It sounds sacrilegious, but there’s no law saying that you have to drink just because it’s Valentine’s Day. Have an extra-decadent dessert instead, and finish the night with a clear head.

The idea, after all, is to wake up the next day more in love than you were the night before. That’s hard to do when one of you is in jail, or facing large fines and a police record. So do some planning this Valentine’s Day, and a jail door will never come between you.