Columbia attorney, taxi service partner to give sober rides on New Year’s Eve

For the second year in a row, the Law Office of Mike Campbell and Taxi Terry’s are teaming up to make sure everyone makes it home safe on New Year’s Eve.

“We like to refer to New Year’s Eve as amateur night,” said Terry Nickerson, owner of Taxi Terry’s. “You have people that go out New Year’s Eve that don’t go out during the whole year.”

Attorney Mike Campbell bought 25 free-ride vouchers from the cab company to give to people who pledged to have a sober driver on New Year’s Eve for the “Helping Columbia Residents Get Home Safe in 2017” initiative.

“There’s really no excuse,” Campbell said. “There’s plenty of services in town for people to use. When you can literally push an app now to have someone pick you up, it’s kind of pointless to even risk driving.”

Last year in mid-Missouri, there were 485 drunk driving crashes and nearly 9 percent of those crashes happened during the month of December.

Campbell said the price of getting a DWI isn’t worth it.

“When you factor in attorney fees, the potential for your insurance rates to go up, court costs, fines, mandatory classes, and in some cases an ignition interlock, it’s not unheard of for costs to go from $5,000-$10,000.”

So far, two people have been killed and 47 have been injured in drunk driving crashes in Columbia in 2016. Campbell and Nickerson are hoping the sober driving campaign will help prevent a rise in those numbers.

“Whatever you have to do, don’t drink and drive,” said Nickerson. “That’s the main thing. Be safe. We want everybody to be alive on the first.”