Whether your Christmas celebration is starting late, or if your New Year’s gatherings are starting early, the Illinois Department of Transportation encourages drivers to act responsibly.

Jared Thornley, the director of IDOT’s Division of Traffic Safety, says fatal drunk driving crashes used to be much higher 20 to 30 years ago, especially during the holidays, but the crashes still happen. Thornley states that a “very high number of traffic fatalities on the roads occur late at night, and a high percentage of those involve people who have been drinking, or who haven’t been wearing a seat belt.”

Thornley encourages using a designated driver and says that local and state police will be doing extra patrols through New Year’s, especially at night.