AAA Texas Offers Free Tipsy Tow Service for Christmas - New Year's Revelers; Anti-Drinking and Driving Statewide Campaign

IRVING, Texas--Dec. 1, 20057, 2005--AAA Texas is once again offering its "Tipsy Tow" service for drivers who drink during the Christmas - New Year's holiday. The service gets underway at 5 PM on Saturday, December 24th and ends at midnight, January 1, 2006.

The Tipsy Tow program, now in its 19th year, is designed to provide drivers with a way to get home safely if they have been drinking. AAA Texas pays for the first 10 miles of the tow.

Here is how it works:

-- Drivers, holiday hosts and bartenders dial AAA Texas' toll free number at 1-800-AAA-HELP or 1-800-222-4357 to request the Tipsy Tow service.

-- AAA Texas dispatches a tow truck to the location and;

-- The driver is driven - and the vehicle towed - home for free up to 10 miles (up to 2 people can ride in the tow truck).

The service is restricted to the driver's residence. Drivers can expect to pay the rate charged by the tow truck contractor for rides beyond ten miles.

"More than five million Texans are expected to travel for the Christmas-New Year's holiday, with the majority of those travelers driving to their destination," said Rose Rougeau, spokesperson for AAA Texas. "In an effort to keep the roadways safe, we encourage partygoers to act responsibly by buckling up and having a designated driver or to utilize our Tipsy Tow service." The person needing a free tow does not need to be an AAA member.

Tipsy Tow is a statewide service that is being offered in Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Galveston, the Greater Houston area, and San Antonio.

AAA Texas, an affiliate of AAA National, has been serving Texans since 1902. Today, more than a million AAA Texas members benefit from the organization's roadside assistance service, travel agency, financial products, insurance products and services, automotive pricing, buying and financing, trip planning services, and traffic safety programs. Information about these products and services is available on AAA Texas' web site at www.aaa-texas.com.