When teens make plans for New Year’s Eve, they often forget to make plans to address a common problem: what to do if their ride decides to drink. A new study says that if teens are prepared to ask their driver to hand over the keys, the request will likely be well-received.

New Year’s Eve plans are associated with celebration, but for young drivers, it is also often a time for tragic decisions to drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A 2011 study commissioned by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) sought to understand the decisions made by teens on the holiday.

The study’s results showed that teens perceive New Year’s Eve as the most dangerous night of the year to drive. However, the respondents also indicated that the holiday is also the time when teens most often drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The study involved approximately 2,300 juniors and seniors in high school. The researchers asked the teens to report on danger levels for certain events and how likely teens are to drive at those times. One of the events examined in the analysis was New Year’s Eve, which ranked first on both measures.

The study also had good news for teens and their parents. When asked if they would stop driving due to alcohol consumption if asked by their passenger, 94 percent of respondents said that they would respect the request and hand over their keys. When it came to driving after using marijuana, 90 percent said they would not drive if their passenger asked them.

The results showed that teens were more likely to ask their driver to reconsider if the driver was under the influence of alcohol, when compared to drivers under the influence of marijuana. In addition, the study found that females were more likely than males to speak up against either driving following alcohol use or marijuana use.

SADD Senior Advisor for Policy, Research and Education, Stephen Wallace, explains that the information gathered by the study needs to be communicated often to teens. Teens need to know that if they have concerns about their friends’ decision to drive, they need to express them. It’s likely that their action will be effective.

Liberty Mutual also encourages parents to get involved with their teen in planning how they will handle such situations. Parents who discuss clear rules with their child about alcohol consumption and how to handle a scenario in which a driver is making a poor decision to operate a vehicle tend to be effective.