Tips on how to take someone's keys away.

If you’re at a party, and you see someone who is drunk, take their keys away.  Here are some helpful tips and advice from focus group research on how people can get the keys away from a drunk driver.

1)  If it is a close friend, try and use a soft, calm approach at first. Suggest to them that they’ve had too much to drink and it would be better if someone else drove or if they called “Safe Rides” at 661-259-6330.

2) Be calm. Joke about it. Make light of it.

3) Try to make it sound like you are doing them a favor.

4) If it is somebody you don’t know well, ask their friends to persuade them to hand over the keys. Usually they will listen.

5) If it is a good friend, spouse, or significant other, tell them if they insist on driving, you are not going with them and will call someone else for a ride, take a cab, or walk.

6) Take their keys while they are preoccupied. Most likely, they will think they’ve lost them and will be forced to find another mode of transportation.

**MOST IMPORTANTLY **

7) Whatever you do, avoid embarrassing the person or becoming confrontational, especially when dealing with men. This makes them appear vulnerable to alcohol and its effects.

Tips from  www2.potsdam.edu.