University Medical Center released a commercial on Monday asking Lubbockites “Who is your ride this New Year’s Eve?’
Emergency Medical Services Director, Tom Little, came up with the idea for the video. He said each year first responders answer several calls, most of them have to do with falls, sickness from too much alcohol and car accidents.
“We do find a lot of impaired driving during holiday seasons like this where there’s lots of celebrations going on,” Little said. “Drunk driving’s a choice. The best thing to do is select a designated driver to drive for you or there’s other means of transportation besides that. You can call a taxi, you can call an Uber. The other remaining modes of transportation aren’t necessarily the most desirable and that is a police car, if they stop you…and if you do get by them and have an accident, then you’re going to encounter EMS and you don’t want to see us on New Years Eve and finally the last mode of transportation is a funeral home and that’s the one we don’t want you to have to experience.”
Little said he pitched the idea about two weeks ago and it was shot over the weekend. The commercial is playing on local TV stations and on social media.