They videotaped the first Running of the Bull, camera lurching alongside 40 or so friends dressed in white with two guys in a ratty old rented bull costume, people on the beach confused, little kids chasing after them. Dewey Beach, which swells from just over 300 people in the off-season to 60, 000 some weekends in July, has been changing. Over the years, strange things began to happen: Women showed up in full flamenco gear. Money raised from T-shirt sales is donated to the town. Last year, McDonnell wore a Batman costume: the batador. "If Hemingway was right... and you should 'always do sober what you said you'd do drunk, ' " McDonnell wrote on their beach house Web site, "then doesn't it also follow that you should always do drunk what you swore you'd never do sober? Anyway, he talked Howard into going to Pamplona's Festival of San Fermin instead, and there they were, watching the running of the bulls. "It's stupidity for stupidity's sake. Garrett Walsh, District software developer and longtime head of the bull, and Jamie Fargus, Bethesda research coordinator and tail, will shimmy in, suited up. And: "We were screaming like little girls. On Sunday, Walsh couldn't get through one bar without being stopped by an affectionate stranger slurring, "There'sh the bull! In the '90s, when McDonnell and Walsh started renting beach houses, the town was dominated by summer weekend people like themselves crashing on sofas to sleep it off. And some guy's planning to propose to his girlfriend tomorrow at the bull ring.
"To a certain extent, weekenders are living on borrowed time, " Brady said. Two years ago, Fargus entered the ring in a sumo costume after the matador was gored. They both started laughing. When the DJ plays "Wooly Bully, " the crowd will go nuts. This is the 10th year of a tradition created on a whim that inexplicably ignited: the Running of the Bull, apologies to Pamplona. John Hardy, who owns a hot-tub store and deejays in town, said he remembers all kinds of crazy antics back in the 1970s, like people setting up pulpits in the sand and acting as faith healers curing people of pregnancy.
McDonnell had read it a few too many times, he said. At a neighboring bar, the band stopped mid-jam to sing "Olé, olé olé olé! " People plan summer vacations around this. I'd be crazy not to. They laughed about what idiots they were -- until the bulls came back about a minute later. Friends launched a protest movement, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal Costumes, waved signs and got handcuffed to a pole. Their beach house group kept changing, too, as people got older, busier. The crowd shouted along. "That's what makes Dewey Beach unique. Then charge along the surf with a bull chasing them. Howard and Brady got married and got out. Or as Fargus said, "It's so much fun...
Mothers will grab their children and weekend visitors will jump out of the way as throngs appear over the dunes, yelling "Toro, toro! " It was always rowdy. Tomorrow afternoon here in Dewey Beach, police will shut the main drag as hundreds of people surge through the two-block-wide Delmarva town and storm the beach. Well, two people in a bull suit, actually. "The whole town's abuzz, " he said. Planes fly over the beach trailing banners: Look out for the bull! They'll gather with celebrants in white shirts and red bandanas at the Starboard bar. A bookie calculated odds and took bets on the bullfight, which often ended with someone falling to the ground and squirting little packets of ketchup. They were all running, packed close together.... Montgomery was a Dewey bartender when the bull running started, then he bought the Starboard and began promoting the event a few years ago. Now police shut down Route 1 to the disgust of people who have driven hours only to get stuck in a baking-hot traffic jam a few agonizing miles from Rehoboth Beach or Bethany Beach.
A cow arrived and flirted with the bull. That changed it: Now there's a new bull costume, all clean and smiling, instead of glowering. "The bull riding in, all four legs pedaling. This year, there will be a dignitaries section with local politicians. Then, after the run, they'll head back to the bar for a ridiculous semblance of a bullfight. He nodded -- he was in. Behind them was a little bare space, and then the bulls galloping, tossing their heads up and down.
"It would be great, " McDonnell said. It has become a little quieter, a lot pricier, with more condominiums and more children. It seemed like the Spaniards knew what to do, and only the two Americans were scrambling for cover, hopping a fence as the bulls raced by. Sometimes odd things happen at the beach. Walsh blinked, swallowed some Guinness, thinking.
Then again... Last week, over beers in Dupont Circle, McDonnell leaned forward and said, "I think we should rent a tandem bike. "The Sun Also Rises". "It had run its course, " Walsh said. Someone bought scores of giant foam fingers that said, "Go bull! " She wrestled the bull to the ground as the fatador. "Suddenly a crowd came down the street. Just as the Spaniards had anticipated. The Madness SpreadsIt wasn't all that weird for Dewey. "People like to goof around at the beach, " McDonnell hazarded. Those who kept coming noticed they were starting to like the slow off-season, too, and going out to dinner rather than just grabbing a slice between bars.
And then watching two angry bulls turn around and thunder back at them. Some guy will play Spanish songs on a little guitar as the crowd weaves out, shouting and whacking the bull with rolled-up newspapers. The instigators were, of course, a Washington corporate lawyer, Michael McDonnell, and his beach house buddies who weekend in this laid-back, sunburned, bloody-marys-to-take-the-edge-off town. Then one year while finishing law school, he ended up with plane tickets to Spain for a wedding -- long story. Other beach houses made signs to hang on decks and hosted sangria parties, cheering as the bull ran by. Bud Light is a sponsor. Walsh keeps saying it's his last time as the bull. Walsh looked over the sweaty, staggering-drunk-by-midafternoon crowd like a proud father.
If you're under 21 years old, it's particularly important for you to understand Zero Tolerance and how to navigate social situations involving alcohol without messing up your life. Drunk driving often leads to terrible, irreversible consequences. 88% of those surveyed report using their phones at a stop sign or red light. How do you stay calm?
And how can you prevent drunk driving and distracted driving? In our safe driving videos, Aceable can give you more examples of distractions, explain what's at risk, and prepare you with tips for reducing distractions. Drivers who lose their cool can make some really dumb choices on the road. The difference between dui and dwi is aceable agent. We also explored state laws regulating drunk driving and distracted driving, and we looked to see which states have the highest number of violations of those laws. Reducing Disctractions. We looked at the data to find out which is more prevalent and which is more deadly. Why did the fatality percentage increase in 2020?
Never get behind the wheel after drinking. Drinking and driving is one of the worst things a person can do. Take a defensive driving course to learn methods of driving that protect you from your own distractions as well as from the actions of other distracted drivers on the road. The general consensus is that drunk driving is more fatal than distracted driving because drunk drivers tend to be more reckless and traveling at higher speeds than distracted drivers. Then we compared this past year to prior years. It's not worth the risk. If you like having the freedom to wear, eat, and do what you want, avoid that jail life. Distracted driving fatalities have remained right around the 3, 000-per-year rate for the past decade, despite laws being passed to combat distracted driving. The states with the most DUI violations are: North Dakota. The total bill can easily reach $10, 000. Videos On the Dangers of Distracted & Impaired Driving. The difference between dui and dwi is aceable and ojo ceos. Six states have only a partial hand-held ban, typically banning new licensees from using their phones while driving.
All drivers are also banned from using a hand-held phone in 24 states (mostly on the coasts). Which States Are the Worst for Drunk Driving and Distracted Driving? Many distracted driving accidents are fender-benders resulting from distractions in stop-and-go traffic. Strategies for Becoming Responsible Around Alcohol. Fatigued driving is hard to measure and not exactly illegal, so people underestimate the risks involved. If your phone is in the backseat or the trunk, you won't be tempted to check it. Make sure any kids in the car also have whatever toys, snacks, or entertainment they might need before starting your journey. Drunk driving and distracted driving are both deadly. Again, this may be because the lack of traffic congestion makes drivers think they can take their eyes off the road more. There's more to distracted driving than annoying people staring at their phones instead of hitting the gas pedal when the traffic light turns green. There is a bit of good news: drunk driving fatalities are declining. Everyone runs late sometimes or has the occasional bad mood, but taking out your aggression on other vehicles is really dangerous. The Real Cost of a DUI. This means more risky drivers were on the roads. The fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) actually increased from 1.
All states have banned drunk driving. Nearly all states have banned texting while driving, and most states have bans against using a hand-held phone while driving, in an attempt to minimize distracted driving. You know what's better than spending your Saturday mornings picking up garbage? There are a few reasons: According to the NHTSA's report on traffic safety during the second quarter of 2020, risk-averse drivers likely followed stay-at-home orders and stayed off the roads while drivers who take more risks would have been out more. And go out of your way to make your phone inaccessible while driving. And with one out of every ten people having been in a car accident due to someone being distracted by their phone, distracted driving is clearly more prevalent than drunk driving. Over a thousand people had their lives cut short, many of them being innocent victims who paid the ultimate price for someone else's mistake. The difference between dui and dwi is aceable raises $4 million. Use an app to lock your phone while the car is running. That means no drunk driving and no distracted driving. And 51% say they are more distracted while driving today than they were five years ago. And the remaining states have no ban against holding a phone while driving.
Open Container Laws. Call a Taxi, Uber, or Lyft. Don't be guilty of Driving While Sleepy. How Are State Laws Addressing Drunk Driving and Distracted Driving? With more drivers staying home because of the pandemic, did we drive more safely in 2020 than we had in the past? You could be assigned up to 100 hours of community service. But lawmakers can write laws banning the use of hand-held phones while driving. It's technically not possible to determine how often people drive drunk compared to how often they drive with distractions because we can't catch every occurrence of drunk driving and distracted driving. It would be impossible to write a law banning you from being distracted since humans can be distracted by any number of things. Drunk driving and distracted driving can both be minimized, if not altogether avoided! What we do know is that distracted driving has increased as distractions, in general, have increased, largely due to technology. Put your phone out of reach. A recent survey found that 61% of Americans admit to being more distracted in their daily lives as a result of smartphone usage. Less traffic congestion means people have more room to drive recklessly.
You can drive home the next day when you're sober. Take your friends on an amazing vacation. We're talkin' legal fees, fines, increased insurance premiums, and bail. The Real Cost of a DUI. That's not even counting the money you're missing out on via lost wages. After all, there is a certain percentage of American adults who don't drink at all (estimated at around 30%), but none of us are immune to distractions. Find out how you can make it through long road trips and early morning commutes without putting yourself and others in danger. We'll also explain the myth of multitasking (Hint: You can do two things at once, but that means doing neither of them well). You could even get jail time. Although cell phones are the biggest culprit for driver distractions, there are many others. Aceable can show you how to avoid road rage and stay chill on the road. In Colorado, for example, there was a 32% increase in alcohol and marijuana-related crashes from January to April of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. In Utah, the limit is. This is far more than the 3, 142 deaths caused by distracted driving over the same period.
It doesn't matter if you're a new driver or an expert behind the wheel, if you're distracted or under the influence of drugs or alcohol it's impossible to drive safely. Florida, for example, saw a higher percentage of reckless speeding tickets in 2020 than in 2019. Unfortunately, our driving habits appear to have gotten worse in 2020. Crash stats for the first half of 2020 showed fatalities were down about 2% compared to 2019, which sounds like good news, until you remember that people drove less in 2020 because the pandemic kept us home. Distracted Driving: Which Causes More Fatalities? Currently, all states except Montana have a ban against texting while driving. Fewer people were willing to rideshare during the pandemic, so driving under the influence rose.
Here's everything you need to know about drunk driving vs. distracted driving. There are also several ways to avoid distracted driving: Keep passengers to a minimum. Most states require the blood alcohol content (BAC) levels of drivers to be less than. The reality is that sleep-deprived drivers are much more likely than alert drivers to make a mistake, zone out, or fail to react to information during a drive. Ways to Avoid Drunk Driving and Distracted Driving. Distracted Driving Risks. Distracted Driving: Which is More Prevalent? As mentioned earlier, DUI's simply cost a whole lotta money.