Travel safely as holiday season approaches
This has been a rather dramatic year for many, many people and I'm sure that despite the grave challenges we faced in 2009, we are all going to do our very best to celebrate the holidays and welcome the promise of a new year.
So let's celebrate safely and close out this year without further complication.
I had the pleasure of spending much of my career here at the Naperville Police Department focused on traffic safety and it's something that our police department takes very seriously, for good reason. With the winter holidays quickly approaching, maybe it's time to do a quick review of why traffic safety is a big deal for us and a big deal for you.
It was on the evening of Christmas Day about 10 years ago now and I was a traffic officer at the time. At about 6 p.m. I got paged (we had pagers then, remember those?) to come in for a bad traffic accident involving fatalities. It was snowing really hard at the time and it took me a few minutes to get to the crash scene, but there in the middle of the road were two completely wrecked cars.
To paint the picture here you need to know that for a really serious crash investigation we block off the road and divert traffic, so the crash scene itself is always eerily quiet. So on Christmas this year we have two horrifically wrecked cars in this very quiet and otherwise beautiful winter scene of heavily falling snow. And the snow is falling on all of the wrapped Christmas gifts that have been scattered all over by the force of the crash.
And, oh ... the victims of the crash. They are still there too. And they are also very quiet. Christmas didn't turn out the right way for some people that year because of an intoxicated motorist. It all changed from good to bad in an instant and the consequences were bigger than just a wrecked holiday.
The holidays are a very wonderful time of celebrating our good health and good fortune with those we love and care about. It's important to take some time with the people we hold dear as friends and co-workers and celebrate a bit with them too.
It's all such a good time that sometimes we get wrapped up in the magic of the holidays and forget about the consequences. You can't though. That traffic crash made me understand that it's not just the holidays you have to worry about. Some decisions you make under the influence of "holiday spirits" can have lasting consequences.
Starting the New Year with a DUI arrest under your belt is not a good holiday plan.
I don't want to wreck your holiday celebrations this year. Quite the opposite, I wish you all a fun and festive holiday season. But I do ask that you think for just a moment before that holiday party or after-work event and -- before you enjoy that first drink -- plan how you are getting home.
So before we dive headlong into the holiday party schedule, think about taking some intentional and deliberate steps this holiday season to include a safe ride home in your celebration plans, for you and those you care about.
Get home safely, without a DUI arrest, without a traffic crash and without the consequences that will surely outlast the holiday season.
Drive safely, and buckle up -- every time, every trip!
-- Vincent J. Gortner is deputy chief of police for the Naperville Police Department
