It is the holiday season, and Chief Dan McCann of the Town of Crawford Police has these words of advice: "If you drink, don't drive. It's that simple."

More generally, McCann says, "There are some hard lessons when it comes to the question of driving and distraction. It isn't just alcohol, it's drugs from the doctor, it's text messaging, it's all about choices and decisions. It's vital to make good choices and the right decisions."

Those choices and those decisions are sometimes hard to make. At holiday parties there will be plenty of choices to make, and whether to drink alcohol will be one of them.

"In New York State," says Lieutenant Dominick Blasko of the Town of Crawford Police, "if you're under the age of 21, and you're pulled over in your car, and you are found to have as little as 0.02 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) — which means having just two parts alcohol per 10,000 parts blood in your body — then you will face a civil hearing with the Department of Motor Vehicles. You will most likely lose your license and have to pay a fine of up to $550."

That's just the beginning. To get your license back?

"You will have to go through the whole licensing process, which will include more fines and reinstatement fees," says Lieutenant Blasko. "And then, of course, your insurance premium will have gone through the roof."

But, before anything as good as that happens, you will have had to undergo a lot of court mandated psychotherapy — which is not cheap — and also pay your lawyers. The estimated cost of a drinking and driving conviction in New York State today is around $15,000. That's because this is an offense that's taken very seriously in the 21st century.

Lieutenant Blasko explains. "It's not like the old days, when it wasn't regarded as such a big deal. The volume of traffic has increased enormously, and with it come all the risks of traffic. So, whereas back in the old days, a drunk driver might just kill himself, wrapping his car around a tree, today he's just as likely to kill a family of five in a head-on collision."

A big part of this problem is that teenagers are not usually very good drivers, even while sober. "Young people really do not have the experience and motor skills to drive that well," says Lieutenant Blasko. "Add alcohol and you're degrading those skills considerably."

On top of that, of course, those under 21 are breaking the law by drinking alcohol. That doesn't mean that it won't happen, but everyone needs to keep in mind what Chief McCann says. "It comes down to your own awareness of the decisions you make. You have to be the person in charge of yourself."

So when there's peer pressure at a party to take a hit off a bottle passing around, think about the consequences.

Chief McCann says that during the holiday season, the police will be increasing their patrols and they will be specifically looking for drunk or intoxicated drivers.

"The last thing you want to do, when you go to a party is to come out later, lose control of your car, and kill someone," says Lieutenant Blasko. "Ultimately, that's what this is all about."