21 Drinks + Driving = 38 Years

Nicole Baukus, a 24-year-old from Spring, Texas, found it wise to consume 21 drinks in five hours and then drive around town in her Ford F-150. She drove the wrong direction on I-45 and plowed head-on into a tiny Chevy Aveo, killing two people.

When I see stories like this, I’m always curious to know what the server or bartender was thinking. It’s true that we all get distracted and don’t pay attention from time to time, but something is drastically wrong when someone is served 21 drinks and nobody raises a red flag … And that goes for servers, bartenders, managers, bussers, hostesses, other patrons, or essentially anyone who was there that evening and didn’t have their head shoved entirely up their ass.

What people in the service industry need to understand is (1) Yes, this can happen to you if you refuse to do your job responsibly, but (2) This can be easily avoided.

As a TABC certification online provider, that’s what we aim to do: Arm you with the knowledge you need to follow the law and be a responsible seller/server, but it’s up to you to recognize what you, your employer, your customers, and other people they may come in contact with (or plow their F-150 into) have to lose if you don’t do so.

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