Safety & sense urged for holiday office parties

Many workplaces across Iowa may be knocking off early this afternoon for their annual office Christmas parties. While it’s usually fun to stick around for a while, one official says it can become hazardous to your career and your life to down a lot of alcohol at the bash. Mike Irwin is spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute. He says about 40-percent of driving fatalities are alcohol-related — and the number rises during the holidays. Irwin says party hosts in Iowa need to be particularly watchful of how much booze their guests are consuming. Irwin says party hosts need to NOT rush to refill the glasses when they’re empty, and offer plenty of munchies and lots of non-alcoholic drinks too. Between Thanksgiving & New Year’s Eve of last year, Irwin says nearly 15-hundred people were killed nationwide in alcohol-related crashes. More than 200 were killed on Christmas Day alone.