happy Friday everyone we are here and it is the weekend before 4th of July as we like to call it around here the original brexit ah no okay uh as you can see we have fun things on our set Flags Freedom balls glasses all the good stuff but we are going to talk today about all things Fourth of July that’s fireworks alcohol and your neighbors and those are probably the most important ones couple rules and regulations just so everyone is aware and if you go and have too much fun you know exactly what you’re doing
or what you should have done y um I’m Brandy Austin and this is lar Mike and we’re from the Brandy Austin Law Firm this is disclosure live with Brandy Austin law um so let’s just jump right into it yes fireworks fireworks I love them they’re awesome fireworks are fireworks are amazing devices that simulate explosions kids love them uh we have fireworks all throughout the year for special occasions but when it comes to 4th of July that’s when you get the majority of your fireworks Sal yeah the
fireworks stands open up um on the 4th of July and they open up um New Years I know because there’s one near my house in fact there’s like 50 not too far from my house because why do you think it’s the unincorporated area you cannot have fireworks within so many feet I think yes 5,000 ft of certain cities or 2,000 feet within 2,000 feet of the city limits of Arlington 5,000 for Mansfield um Fort Worth and some of the other ones so you can purchase your fireworks but keep them out of the city
so you know you can get fined or arrested or whatever the cops feel like and if you have alcohol that’s just another thing on top of it but um why do you think the city C says no fireworks uh within the limits well the major thing is is fires I mean fireworks can cause fires uh within City Limits yeah you know right know some people don’t don’t believe that but you know within Town you’ve got houses you’ve got trees you’ve got brushes you’ve got certain things that can be destroyed if people
are careless with fireworks and you know there are a lot of fireworks that flap into the sky explode and things can come down so um that’s one of the major things they’re trying to make sure that every One Is Safe when it comes to using these sorts of devices well and also fireworks are responsible for 30% of all injuries on the 4th of July that’s a lot of injuries people um and if you’re at home which a lot of people do enjoy backyard barbecues things like that they’re at home if you live within the
city limits and you can’t have fireworks and so you’re less likely to be injured less of a cost on the city with the ambulance and hospital and all that stuff um but we’re going to go over a few saf rules since you’re here we would like you to be safe I will say um you know personal injury cases do happen from fireworks uh you’ve got manufacturer of the actual fireworks you got person who purchased the fireworks the house that they’re at the business wherever they’re at assuming they’re
legal legally have or legally setting them off right yes or lighting them um but you know personal injuries do happen please be safe so let’s go over some safety tips uh for everyone so for some safety tips number one thing when it comes to fireworks is you want to read the instructions uh it depends on if they come with instructions I mean I think it says just like here right just like and Let It Go um but instructions are are important there are several different types of fireworks you got
your sparklers you got your little smoke bombs you got the things that turn into snakes uh you even got the ones that fly up in the air so candles right right right and your mads and all the great stuff but what you need to make sure is if there are inst instructions involved read the instructions and do exactly what the instructions say a lot of times during this time of year you see people who just go crazy with them I’ve seen videos where people TI them to each other’s shoes light them in the house
dangerous stuff so first thing read the instructions the next thing you want to make sure that you have is either a fire extinguisher or a bucket of water nearby and because we’re talking about something that explodes or has some type of pyrot Technic component right you want to make sure that you have something there to put that fire out mhm uh the next thing that you want to do is you don’t want to allow your children to to use a fireworks and this comes into play a lot with sparklers but people
don’t realize that sparklers are super super hot they are right isn’t it phosphorus or something that’s actually burning it’s it’s some some some chemical component that can burn right and so it’s it’s hotter than your average fire and that can get out of control for a child if they touch their arm or you know lots of things can just shoot up and go or like explode into fire and while an adult may be able to recover a child can’t exactly so keep them away from children yeah uh another
thing that should be just common sense is don’t set off the fireworks in the house oh come on what’s the fun in that I know right I mean they’re funny videos but uh don’t make those videos yeah don’t be the one to make those videos because you know your stuff can get set on fire so so do those types of activities outside away from Cars away from buildings you know just out in a field somewhere where you’re able to just not harm anybody mhm uh and then there’s one important rule uh when it
comes to dud fireworks fireworks that don’t light off when you light it is to not touch a dud don’t don’t try to relight it I mean there’s this there’s this saying uh don’t relight a dud or else it’s going to blow up in your head mm I just made that up but you know it’s true it’s true and I get Duds in every single collection of fireworks I purchase every year yeah always a dead somewhere so don’t relate them soak them in water and then dispose of them properly all right let’s move on to
alcohol so it’s technically called a no refusal weekend we’ll get into that but what do you think people should do this weekend if they’re drinking well you know the number one thing that you should do is you should drink responsibly M absolutely you know celebrating and and alcohol gets involved yeah have a good time enjoy independence day but with drinking you need to make sure that you’re responsible you’re an adult so the number one thing don’t drive when you drink nope I mean we’ve got so many
options out there not only do we have taxis but we’ve got lift you’ve got Uber you’ve got Designated Drivers you got your BFF or you got your mom or your dad or if you don’t have family I’m pretty sure pretty much anyone will come and get you this weekend exactly cuz it it is it is dangerous um lots of people drink and it’s not just the weekend because I think ju 4th is on a Tuesday which means people are going to party from Friday night to Tuesday night yes sir that’s a lot of alcohol and a lot of
risk okay so let’s talk about no refusal weekend I spoke with our criminal attorney general just before I came in here and asked her her thoughts it’s important to know um how much do you think a duy cost people out of pocket if they get one just an average person oo I don’t know $10,000 it’s about 10 to $12,000 in costs and fees and finds that’s a lot of money that a lot of money do you know how much Uber cost uh maybe like $10 it’s like 20 bucks 20 bucks the last time you took an Uber
yeah other people pay for them [Music] fancy I Hunter is telling me something I have no idea what he’s saying speak louder you say speak louder no it can go up from there but it’s still less than $10,000 oh that’s right you drive for Uber yes I do oh oh that’s right we have our own in-house Uber driver yes so we can go it’s like $10 and it goes up from there still cheaper than it still cheaper than the 10,000 to 12,000 the most I’ve seen on a really busy weekend is probably like a three time surch but
that’s not that’s not bad that’s not bad it’s like it’ll cost you 10 miles like 30 bucks still cheaper than 10 to 12,000 exactly um okay so what did she suggest if you get pulled over um she said be polite right I mean isn’t that common sense that is common sense be polite what happens when you’re not nice to police officers oh they didn’t to get really pushy that’s right um so it’s a NOA refusal weekend now what does no refusal actually mean um okay so it’s important
to note you can always refuse a field sobriety test they’re subjective so there’s no chemical test of any sort that goes with a field sobriety test you basically just stand there and do what they tell you to and if they think you’re not doing it right then you can be um just designated as not sober so it’s not subjective um breathalyzers breathalyzers uh they’re less uh I would say less reliable than a blood test you can you can always say you don’t want to take the breath izer
and then they’re automatically um going to take you to get your blood drawn and this happens whether it’s no refusal or weekend or not no refusal is just something that come up scare people um I think personally um but so you will get a blood test a blood test usually happens a couple hours later they have to get a warrant um because they are taking blood from your person um so you know it’s up to you to to make the decision whether taking the breathalyzer which happens to be less reliable um but happens right then MH or
asking for a blood test a couple hours later would be beneficial which one would you prefer to do in your situation only you can make that decision um but you can always ask for an attorney I mean after all of this because they’re still allowed to do all that um okay so at the end of the day we think that one uh don’t take the field sobriety test two uh make the decision between breathalyzer and blood test three be polite and ultimately you should what not drink and drive that’s right we can
avoid all of this uh if you find yourself in a position where you need our services give us a call um okay so let’s talk about your neighbors and this is an important one that I think people sometimes forget uh so we’re going to talk about it Larry what about our neighbors so your neighbors you well in this day and age I mean when we’re talking about for the past few years you have a lot of veterans that are returning back home from war so you’ve got PTSD uh symptoms out there you’ve
got people who’ve been diagnosed with PTSD and on holidays like this with all the explosions it tends to send people back to thinking that they’re reliving those moments so if you have a neighbor that is a veteran you want to be aware that sitting off fireworks within that vicinity May trigger something um so just just out of honor and respect for your for your neighbors if you’re going to do that figure out you know if your neighbor um is a veteran or is someone who has experienced some sort of
traumatic event that may be affected by that and and possibly take that somewhere else so if you are considering doing this and you do live in an area where you allowed to do it at your house set off fireworks um maybe just go talk to your neighbors if you I mean likely you know whether your neighbors are but if you don’t I think this is a great opportunity to take some cupcakes or something over and get to know your neighbors and and say hey I was thinking about setting off any some fireworks
this weekend do you see any reason why I shouldn’t or do you have a problem with it or and it’s not just people pets sometimes uh freak out from uh fireworks they’re loud children I have a baby and babies don’t like fireworks very much it’s okay you know but um I wouldn’t say no because of it but it’s always a good idea to just just check in yeah definitely be a good Community helper as my daughter likes to say uh so let’s talk about some of the symptoms let’s
say that maybe you have another neighbor that’s not quite as nice as you are and did not ask ahead of time what uh what are some symptoms you can look out for um for your neighbors well with people who have some type of PTSD it’ll trigger like a fight ORF flight event uh there may some aggressive symptoms um they may even go into when I talked about reliving the moments they you know I’ve read stories of of veterans who when the fireworks went off they’re thinking that people are coming so they’re they’re
calling the police they’ve got whatever they need to protect themselves until they realize oh it’s not happening again so you get someone who’s agitated or uh showing aggressive symptoms or even fearful symptoms um those may be things to look out for it’s like a hyperarousal state right yes very hyperarousal okay and it’s not just the sound uh it can be the lights and the flashes too correct yes so if you are considering having a light show of some sort you know just be mindful of where your lights are are
flashing um and just just check in just check in and if you see someone that’s reacting to fireworks or light flashes uh what’s a what’s the best thing to do uh you want to get them out of that situation and if they’re un able to be approached well then you want to move yourself avoid that situation and get out the area and call 911 um to allow some professional people to come in and help um it doesn’t mean they’re in trouble doesn’t mean they’re going to jail they’re not going to jail it just
means that some medical professionals who are trained to understand and I’m sure they’ve had briefings especially on holiday weekends they’re trained to understand what they’re seeing and how to deescalate the situation yes okay well thank you for joining us we talked today a little bit about uh the original brexit is it still funny no I think it’s funny all right all right and our freedom balls yeah Freedom balls are funny I don’t know okay so we talked about fireworks uh limiting where you
can set them off injuries caused by fireworks and we went over some safety tips drinking and driving don’t do it um there are apps for that people Services a 100 different things don’t get those charges and watching out for your neighbors PTSD um both for veterans and for pets or even small children light flashes all sorts of things um if you have any questions about any of what we talked about today feel free to give us a call it’s still uh a few days away uh you can send give us a call we’ll get
the message and respond to you if you need any help legal or otherwise we’ll be happy to do so give us a call 817 8419 n6 check out our website www. Brandy Austin law.com that is Brandy like the wine Austin like the city lies in what we do um thank you for joining us and we will see you next week July is going to be legislative month I know everyone is super excited about the Supreme Court uh but we usually get a lot of new cases released which means new law and so we’re going to talk about that if we
don’t get anything exciting we’ll talk about Texas legislation but um we will see you next month bye Freedom V you said that multiple times well it’s okay they’ll at this at the end these are just our skip it.
This transcript was auto-populated.