Trending Topics

Utahns can now practice DUI jail call

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — In Utah, even if you don’t get arrested for drunk driving you might still have to call your mom from jail _ sort of.

The Utah Highway Patrol and some local bars hope letting people practice an uncomfortable call from the local lockup will help dissuade drinking and driving.

A phone number has been set up to recreate what it would feel like to make such a call. After dialing 1-877-JAIL-FON, the caller is given the option to talk to a hysterical mother or a disapproving father, among others. A prerecorded message then plays one end of what the conversation might sound like, with the caller filling in the other half.

Slogans associated with the campaign include “Getting a DUI is easy, calling your mom from jail is hard.”

The campaign runs through Sept. 7.