HOUSTON -- Hospital emergency rooms in Houston and across the country are bracing for a host of expected New Year's Eve arrivals.
Fireworks injuries, car crashes, and over-intoxication comprise most of the usual NYE issues. But doctors say celebratory gunfire, unfortunately, continues to be a legitimate concern as well.
"New Year's Eve is always a busy time of the year for our emergency department and emergency departments across the country," said Ben Taub Dr. Bobby Kapur, Associate Chief of Emergency Medicine with Baylor College of Medicine.
"And stray bullets kill people. A bullet can go up to a mile high in the sky and it can come down as fast as 500 feet per second. It can kill people instantly."
Kapur says celebratory gunfire, along fireworks mishaps, and drunk driving, are avoidable injuries that will likely contribute to emergency room traffic on New Year's Eve. Hospitals and police departments across the U.S., sometimes in widespread public service announcement campaigns, are spreading the same message about the dangers of celebratory gunfire hoping to bring an end to the ill-advised tradition.
"Well don't pop any guns in the air because you never know where it's going to land," added Julio Ibarra who sells fireworks from his roadside stand Jay Jay's Fireworks just outside Houston city limits on W. Mount Houston.
"I have four of my own kids. So forbid I'm out barbecuing and a stray bullet hits one of my children. These are things people don't think about."
"These people that shoot up in the air, that could be somebody's mom, somebody's kid," said Ibarra.
Discharging firearms within city limits is illegal. Citizens are urged to call police if they witness someone celebrating the New Year with a gun.
