It appears that Maine folks, and those all across the country, may have finally come to the conclusion that drinking and driving is a dangerous combination.

We’re fresh off New Year’s Eve celebrations, and the statistics are showing that accidents and OUI (operating under the influence) arrests were down.

Here in the Boothbay region, restaurants and lounges hosting New Year’s Eve parties joined forces to offer free taxi services, a very smart move and one which party-goers would have been foolish to turn down. We especially liked the comment that there would be no deadline on the taxi service — it was to continue until the last reveler was home.

Europeans have been shaking their heads in disbelief for years at Americans who continue to drink. Most of them (we’re sure there are a few exceptions) gave up that practice years ago. Driving after you’ve been drinking isn’t tolerated by law enforcement in many other countries — it simply isn’t something you do. They party hard, but they don’t get behind the wheel afterwards.

We hate to admit it, but we grew up in a generation when drinking and driving was commonplace. Admittedly, in small towns like ours, there were far fewer vehicles on the road, which improved your odds of not hitting someone else, but it did nothing to help you avoid going off the road and striking a tree or telephone pole.

While a few were familiar with some of today’s drugs back then, most of us settled for beer and liquor. We’d like to be able to brag and say that most young people drank sensibly and responsibly then, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The older you get, the more you look back in time and shudder at how lucky you were to have avoided serious consequences from drinking and driving.

Unfortunately, just as today, some did not.

Preaching to younger folks about the dangers of driving while impaired, or telling yourself you’re in good shape to drive when you’re really not, usually falls on deaf ears, but we feel good about the fact that today, we seem to be doing a better job of convincing them that it’s not safe, nor is it smart, to get behind the wheel if you’ve been drinking or using other drugs.

Maybe, in another generation or two, we’ll adopt the philosophy of many Europeans that when we plan to go out for the evening and party, we need to make advance plans to get home — and that doesn’t include driving ourselves!

We also should accept responsibility for one another when we’re partying together and make sure the car keys are in the hands of someone who hasn’t been drinking. There’s nothing more tragic than losing a family member or one of our friends and neighbors when it could have been avoided.

Our hats are off to local business owners who cared enough to provide safe passage home for their patrons to insure that they had a fun-filled New Year’s Eve so 2015 could get off to a healthy and happy start for all.