There is plenty to celebrate as we bid 2017 adieu and welcome in 2018. What are your plans for New Year’s Eve? What a great night to join some friends and party. Just think of the letdown, however, if the night ends in handcuffs or on an ambulance gurney.

Why should you wind up in handcuffs or on an ambulance gurney? A little too much party, mixed with an unwise decision to drive is a roll of the dice, at best.

Maybe you’ve ‘proven’ that you can have a few drinks and make it home alright, the other times when you rolled the dice. But, you never know when those dice are going to come up snake eyes.

What does a DUI defense cost these days? Talk about a ‘loaded’ question. Here are some estimates of how much you could expect to pay related to a DUI:

• $200: Towing and impounding your car (the police have a nasty habit of not letting you drive the car after they arrest you for drunk driving)
• $25,000: legal fees
• $4,000: DUI fines and fees
• $500: DUI classes (10 - $50 per class)
• $200: Counseling Fees 
• $510: Driver’s License restoration fee (after you’ve gone a year or two without a Driver’s License)
• $1,500: annual average increase with high-risk auto insurance
• $200: installation of Ignition Interlock Device so that you have to breathe into a tube to prove you’re not intoxicated
• $1,200: monthly fee of $100 to operate Ignition Interlock Device for one year
• $33,310: Total amount of direct costs you could pay for a DUI

This doesn’t include all the additional costs of transportation when you can’t drive, lost wages while going to court and, even, the possibility of losing a job. Then there are the social and emotional expenses. And none of this includes the costs if you’re involved in an accident while driving.

A drunk driving accident could permanently injure you and/or others. People can even die.

After considering all these potentialities, is it really worth taking the risks, especially when there is an easy alternative – hire a ride. You could hire a cab but, as long as you’re celebrating, why not go in style while skipping the roll of the dice? Hiring a limousine is a great way to ensure that your New Year’s Eve reveling is safely carried off, from start to finish, in a fashion you’ll remember for all the right reasons.

Marty Robb, with McHenry Limousine, said they’ve safely conveyed New Year’s partiers to and from their destinations without an accident or DUI and they can do it for you, too (to hire McHenry Limousine, call 815-344-4466).