Natrona County Kicks Off 2018 DUI Campaign

With the holiday season approaching, a reminder is being sent out that drinking and driving is a deadly cocktail.

The Natrona County Emergency Services along with the Wyoming Medical Center, MADD, WYDOT, Coca-Cola and the Casper College Criminal Justice, Fire Science and EMS divisions, have kicked off the 2018 DUI Holiday Campaign.

Statistics show that Blackout Wednesday, or the day before Thanksgiving, is a bigger drinking day in some places than New Years' Eve or even Saint Patrick's Day.

Doctor David Martorano is the director of adult psychiatry at the Wyoming Behavioral Institute.

He says taking or offering a sip of alcohol can do more harm than one might realize.

This is a time of year when a lot of people relapse, because family members aren't cautious about the fact that they have family members in recovery. It's a time of year where people have alcohol readily available, and they encourage the people around them to toast and to have a drink with them, when in fact, that person might have gone 10 months without alcohol and you may not realize how much you're injuring their health and recovery, by not planning ahead.

Doctor Martorano adds if you want to make a New Years resolution to quit drinking, you may want to do that before the new year, because you could be saying your resolution to either a judge, your boss or your work's HR person.