There is no question that ride sharing companies Uber and Lyft have saved lives. It makes it easy to find a sober ride home when all you have to do is pick up the phone, open a ride sharing service app, and tap a few times to find a ride in your area.

But what do you do when your Uber driver isn’t as sober at all? That was the case in Phoenix recently when a man contacted Uber for a ride and his ride appeared to be drunk. He had been out with friends and they had been drinking, so he decided that the smart thing to do was contact Uber and ask them for a safe ride home.

When the driver showed up and they all got in the car, the man noticed something wrong. As he was driving, the Uber driver commented to the group that he needed to stop drinking so much. Because he was concerned that his driver was drunker than he was, the man who requested the ride began to record the conversation and contaced Uber. He wanted to get the driver off the road.

Uber wasn’t complying at that point, so he contacted 911 instead. When police pulled the Uber driver over, he blew .24 on a breathalyzer. That’s three times the legal limit of .08, and he was supposed to be the sober ride for whomever he was assigned to that night.

Uber has since removed the driver from its service. Although this kind of situation is rare, it does highlight how you still need to be vigilant when choosing a ride sharing service or searching for a sober driver. All too often people just want to get home after a long night out, and they narrow their choices down to the ‘most sober’ person in the group.

That choice can end in tragedy, so whether you’ve picked a ride sharing service or you have a friend driving you home, make sure that driver is truly sober before you get into the car with them.

Arizona is one of the few states that have a real handle on their drunk driving problem. Arizona drunk drivers can be charged with many different crimes including DUI, DWI, Extreme DUI, and Super Extreme DUI. Each of these charges come with their own set of penalties, but despite everything, Arizona hasn’t managed to stop all crashes in the state.

Arizona, like many other states, is currently having a problem with drugged drivers. A report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility detailed how the number of fatal crashes involving drugs in 2015 surpassed the number of fatal collisions involving alcohol.

There were a few highlights in the data that dealt with both Arizona drunk drivers and drugged drivers:

• 43% of the drivers who died in crashes tested positive for drugs. That number was higher than those drivers who tested positive for alcohol
• Only 57% of the people who died in crashes were tested for drugs, but of those people, 35% of those who were tested had marijuana in their systems

The report shows that there may be an increased in drugged driving in Arizona, but that doesn’t mean that drugged drivers are taking the place of drunk drivers. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association there were over 26,000 DUI arrests in 2016, and out of those only 5,000 were for drugged driving.

Alcohol is still king in Arizona, but thankfully drunk driving is easier for Arizona police to detect. They have the experience to spot, arrest, and charge their drunk drivers, but with drugged drivers the situation becomes more complex. Like most states, Arizona has hundreds of officers recognized as Drug-Recognition Experts, and until there is a method of detection for drugged driving like a breathalyzer, these officers are there to assess suspected drugged-drivers at any time.

The important thing to keep in mind is that, no matter whether you’re under the influence of alcohol or drugs, impaired driving is impaired driving. Because of the penalty system and the expertise of the officers in the state, you don’t want to be caught in Arizona under the influence of anything when you’re behind the wheel of a car.

2016 was a dangerous year for police officers across the nation, and that danger extended to drunk driving checkpoints and patrols. It’s hard to believe that these officers could be responding to a routine call and have it ended in tragedy, but just like anyone else, they can be victims of drunk drivers.

Officer Noah Leotta of Maryland may have been one of the first police officers killed while on duty stopping drivers at a drunk driving checkpoint, but he definitely hasn’t been the last. 2016 has been full of incidents where police officers were attempting to stop drunk drivers and ended up being struck or injured while doing their job.

Texas police officer struck while assessing a crash

A Texas police officer attended a crash recently and was administering a field sobriety test when a drunk driver struck him. Dash cam footage captured him pushing another person out of the way before he sailed through the air and crashed into the ground. Thankfully he’s doing well after receiving minor injuries.

Arizona police officer loses an eye

Anyone hit by a drunk driver will tell you that the injuries you receive can be significant, but the simple act of putting drunk drivers in the back of a squad car can also result in a life-altering injury.

An Arizona police officer sustained  an injury to his eye when he was arresting a young woman for drunk driving. During a routine stop Sheriff Deputy Cody Gress was kicked in the eye by the heel of a drunk driver’s boot. Unfortunately that heel kick did such significant damage to his eye that doctors couldn’t help him and he’s now blind in one eye, all because someone made the decision to drink, drive, and resist arrest.

Police officers put their lives on the line every single day, but you’d probably never guess that arresting drunk drivers would be one of the most dangerous parts of their job. As a driver yourself you might think you’re driving a short distance home after a few drinks, but for the police officer on duty, dealing with a drunk driver can be life altering.

The Friday Fallout: Every Friday Guardian Interlock brings you a unique drunk driving case or cases that demonstrate the impact of – or fallout from – drunk driving.

If you look at all fifty states in the USA and try to figure out who has had the greatest success in the fight again drunk driving, there’s no better example than Arizona.  Not only does the state has an all offender ignition interlock law, they focus on ignition interlock compliance, sobriety checkpoints, and try new initiatives to crack down on drunk drivers during peak drunk driving periods.

One of those new initiatives is Tipsy Tow. Sponsored by AAA Arizona, it’s a service where a tow truck is on standby to help people say no to drunk driving during the busiest drunk driving periods of the year. Kicked off on the night before Thanksgiving, also known as “Drinksgiving,” Tipsy Tow is available on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve too.

Why would you want to tow your car if you haven’t broken down on the side of the road? Imagine that it’s the holidays and you’ve stopped somewhere for a holiday drink. One drink leads to two, and you’re really not sure if you should get behind the wheel but you don’t want to leave your car behind. Because even one glass of alcohol has the power to affect your driving skills, your best option is finding a designated driver or, if you’re in Arizona, calling Tipsy Tow.

Tipsy Tow will tow your car for free up to ten miles away, and if you go over ten miles they’ll charge you the tow truck driver’s standard rates. Anyone can use the service too; you don’t even have to be a AAA member to call, so there’s no reason not to take advantage of the Tipsy Tow service.

With almost five thousand alcohol-related crashes in 2015 alone, Arizona has to try creative solutions to stop drunk drivers. The Tipsy Tow service just goes to show that sometimes you have to think outside of the box when you’re trying to reduce drunk driving rates, and along with ignition interlocks, holiday checkpoints, and Uber, Arizona is becoming a safer place for drivers.