The evening started great for Bob and Linda, and for Bill and Cindy. Both couples left the kids with trusted babysitters and headed out to New Year’s parties where they would spend their time with good friends welcoming in 2013 while bidding 2012 goodbye.

Bob and Linda hired McHenry Limousine Service to ride to the party in style, picking up some friends along the way. Bill and Cindy saved their money and drove themselves. In the early hours of Jan. 1, 2013, while the limo delivered Bob and Linda back home after a delightful evening, Bill took a ride in the back of a squad car while Cindy took a ride in the back of an ambulance.

Of course, New Year’s Eve 2012 hasn’t passed into history books yet. But, the story above is more than likely. It will happen. The names may be different but, somewhere in Illinois, a Bill or a Cindy or someone by some other name will spoil the holiday with a DUI. Someone else will experience the, hopefully, life-saving talents of paramedics at an accident scene. Someone else won’t be so lucky.

Sergeant Dennis Leard, of the Woodstock Police Department, said accidents are on the rise. In fact, over the course of last year’s Christmas and New Year’s holiday, 21 people died on the roads in Illinois. During last year’s New Year’s holiday, 502 people were injured on roads in the state.

“If you’re in a crash where someone is killed or seriously injured, that’s something you never get over,” Sergeant Leard said. “You’ll carry that with you the rest of your life.”

If someone isn’t drinking and driving, the odds are negligible that they’ll receive a DUI or cause an alcohol-related accident. All they have to do is watch out for the people on the road who aren’t so careful. The more someone drinks, if they do drive, the higher the odds go. Of course, the numbers above speak to accident related deaths and injuries.

In 2010, law enforcement officers recorded 41,900 DUI arrests (according to 2010 Illinois DUI Facts). Drunk driving is based on a driver having .08 percent alcohol in their blood. Getting to that point depends on the weight of the driver and how much alcohol they had to drink in a given period of time.

DUIs are costly, even when they don’t result in accident-related civil cases. Sergeant Leard said a straight DUI will cost upwards of $15,000 these days. That cost doesn’t even begin to consider the inconvenience of losing a driver’s license.

While the odds of receiving a DUI are hardly worth the cost on any given night, the odds are much worse over the New Year’s Eve holiday. Sergeant Leard said that Woodstock, as with other communities in the state, has received grant money from the state to increase the police presence on the road that night.

“It’s a sustained traffic enforcement grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation,” Sergeant Leard said.

While the grant will help to ensure that more drunk drivers are taken off the road before someone gets hurt, Sergeant Leard said the goal of the grant is also to encourage people to avoid driving drunk.

“If people know that we’ll be out patrolling the streets in force, maybe they’ll think twice before they drive drunk,” he said.

Thankfully, many do. As Marty Robb, the owner of McHenry Limousine Service put it, “New Year’s is always gangbusters. People are just having a good-old time. That’s why they call us – so they can have fun, get crazy and not worry.”

As busy as it gets, Robb recommends calling ahead to reserve a ride. However, he said they’ll also pick people up on the fly, though there may be a little wait.

Denny Norton, of Ringwood based auto repair service Performance Unlimited, said he highly recommends McHenry Limousine Service. They’re prompt, courteous and really add some savoir-faire to an event. However, Norton added that any limo or cab ride is a good bargain over driving drunk.

McHenry Limousine Service has 6-passenger and 10-passenger-stretch limos. To schedule a ride, call (815) 344-4466 or visit www.mchenrylimousine.com.

This public service notice is sponsored by Performance Unlimited, wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year. For more information about Performance Unlimited, call (815) 728-0343 or visit www.4performanceunlimited.com.