You may have heard of “Black Friday,” and even taken part in the whirlwind of shopping that typically takes place on the day after Thanksgiving each year—and sometimes on Thanksgiving Day itself!
But have you ever heard of “Blackout Wednesday?” Unfortunately, law enforcement in Florida and all over the country have become very familiar with this term.
In November 2012, Ihosavani Rodriguez reported in the Sun-Sentinel that the day before Thanksgiving has become one of the biggest drinking nights of the year, second only to New Year’s Eve. This is a night when many college students come home and meet up with friends and family whom they haven’t seen for some time. It’s typically a happy day with no requirement to get up early the next morning, followed by lots of home-cooked “free food” and then several days off to recover. It’s a perfect day to binge drink—hence the term, “Blackout Wednesday.”
While the intent may be to simply have fun, it also leads to a spike in drunk driving accidents and arrests. Law enforcement in Florida and throughout the nation acknowledge Thanksgiving Eve as the start of the annual “holiday drinking season” which lasts through New Year’s Day. This time of the year is one of the most dangerous. The Sun-Sentinel quotes Winter Park, FL Police Chief Brett Railey, the head of the Florida Police Chief Association’s highway safety committee: “A lot of the other holidays include something you memorialize. Thanksgiving and the rest of the year are days you celebrate. That’s a concern for us because a lot of people don’t celebrate responsibly.”
The Sun-Sentinel also cites statistics from the National Highway Transportation & Safety Administration, which found a 30% increase in drunk driving accidents over the 2010 Thanksgiving holiday compared with the rest of the year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the number of people killed in drunken driving crashes over the Thanksgiving holiday period spiked by 30 percent in 2010 compared with the rest of the year. The NHTSA reported 174 people killed in drunk driving accidents during the Thanksgiving week in 2010, beginning with “Blackout Wednesday.” Moreover, most of the fatalities occurred in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day. (More recent data was not available at press time.)
The Sun-Sentinel also quotes Janet Mondshein, Executive Director of the Miami, FL chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, who said that her MADD uses this unofficial “drinking holiday” as an occasion to remind everyone about those who may not make it to their Thanksgiving feasts due to a drunk driving fatality: “There are so many people we talk to who are going to have an empty seat at the table…While you are out celebrating, there are others grieving and families that are broken. We want people to celebrate, but to be smart about it.”
Everyone at the Law Offices of Paul J. Healy wish you and yours a very happy–and SAFE–Thanksgiving holiday!
