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If there’s one silver lining to a year clouded in darkness due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s the fact that many of us will welcome in the New Year on Thursday night from the comfort of our homes.

Medical experts have repeatedly warned us about the health risks of gathering in crowded places. The highly contagious virus can easily find new healthy bodies to invade when people mingle too closely together for extended periods of time. New Year’s parties fit that description.

The safest way to ring in 2021 is with members of your immediate family…..preferably those you live under the same roof with. If you do plan to visit friends or neighbors for a New Year’s party, we’re hopeful that the gathering will be 10 people or less and that all take the proper steps to socially distance and wear masks.

For those who do choose to travel to a party, or perhaps dine out at a restaurant, and plan to enjoy an adult beverage, please take responsibility of your actions and do not drink and drive.

New Year’s Eve is notorious for the high number of impaired drivers on the road. We hope that’s not the case this year due to COVID-19, but there are those who choose not to make wise decisions after consuming too much alcohol.

For the vast majority of motorists who will be sober Thursday night, be especially defensive and be on the lookout for drunk drivers.

If you see them before they do something stupid, maybe there will be no tragic wreck stories in this newspaper.

Despite decades of warnings, innumerable studies and countless wrecks, some people insist on not having the good sense to stay off the road after drinking too much. Drinking and driving is, simply stated, stupid and is a life-threatening danger to other people – innocent people.

Even a couple of small drinks impair your ability to drive. More than a couple of drinks not only makes you a road danger, it is illegal.

The Highway Patrol and local law enforcement officers can’t be everywhere and they can’t see everything. They can use your help…if you spot a drunk driver, report him or her to the Highway Patrol or to the nearest law enforcement agency.

You would not be “ratting” on someone; you would be protecting the lives of other motorists, to include yourself or your loved ones.

If you’re going to drink this New Year’s Eve, make sure you have a designated driver or summon a taxi. If your own life isn’t important enough to protect, at least have enough heart to protect the innocent people on the roads.

It’s really very simple, and we’ve all heard it 100,000 times, but it’s also very true – Don’t Drink And Drive.

– The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald