Holiday season means party season, and party season means more drivers who have been drinking.

Those equations mean a heavier-than-usual workload for emergency medical personnel across Baltimore County.

"Yes, especially during the evening hours," said Carol Gallaher, a nurse manager for St. Agnes Hospital's Emergency Department.

An emergency care nurse for 17 years before moving to St. Agnes a few months ago, Gallaher said a single hospital often treats everyone involved in an alcohol-related accident.

The patients often include an impaired driver as well as any sober drivers plus passengers who may be injured.

"That can be a very difficult experience," Gallaher said, noting that a driver causing an accident often becomes as upset as anyone else.

Usually, hospital staff try to separate the impaired driver from the victims, she said.

Paramedic Angela Taury, who has worked with the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department since 2001, said she is especially frustrated when dealing with such cases.

"We have to treat everybody at the same level of care, even though I may know that this person made a bad choice, and chose to put other people in danger," said Taury, who is a career paramedic stationed at Halethorpe fire station.

Gallaher urged partygoers "to make good judgments" when they are drinking.

"You don't get an opportunity to relive that moment," she said.

Statistics show the number of crashes involving alcohol rises between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

"Absolutely, they increase," said Ernie Lehr, a civilian and coordinator of community traffic safety for the county police department.

While Gallaher, Taury and their colleagues confront the worst consequences, others work during the holidays to prevent them.

The county police department has a DUI Task Force of five members that does "saturation patrols" at locations where partygoers and bars are common, said Cpl. Todd Walker, who supervises the unit.

The task force also patrols in neighborhoods where Maryland State Police are holding checkpoints -- places where all motorists are stopped by officers looking for drunken drivers.

Walker explained that, due to a Supreme Court ruling requiring that drivers approaching a checkpoint be informed and have a route around the checkpoint, nearby streets can produce many violators.

So county police are on the lookout for drivers who avoid the checkpoint and who drive erratically.

"We look for people running stop signs, going the wrong way on streets, weaving around," said Officer Phil Winkler, a member of the unit.

Task force officers are on "permanent midnight" duty, Walker said, meaning they work 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. five days a week.

Walker said he believes the task force, stricter penalties and more education are effective.

Winkler said he is convinced he is preventing major injuries and death. "That gives me a real sense of satisfaction," he said.

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