Free funeral offered to drinking motorists

You have to figuratively smack some people to get their attention.

That's what a funeral-home director in Myrtle Beach, S.C., has done with a sobering strategy to keep motorists from drinking and driving.

Last week, he offered a free burial for anyone who agreed to drink and drive on New Year's Eve.

Anyone with a driver's license could sign the pledge on New Year's Eve and, if they died in an accident while under the influence of alcohol, they would get a free funeral.

"Nobody's ever signed it, nor do we intend for anyone to sign it," said Barry Miller, who initiated Operation Stop and Think after he lost a family member in a drunken-driving accident.

"Sometimes you have to go to extremes for people to take notice."

It may be extreme. But it's also thought-provoking.

And it also helps to reinforce the fact that drunken driving can often have more serious consequences than a DWI fine.