LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — On New Year’s Eve, nobody needs a reason to have another drink.

And they might not think about the reasons not to until it’s too late.

You can’t put a price on the lives lost — an average of 28 people a day in a 10-year study of deaths from DUI crashes from 2009-2018. And the number went much higher during the pandemic, hitting almost 37 per day in 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Stories about the victims and the families left to survive without them don’t seem to be enough to interrupt that moment when a bad decision happens. But what if that one-drink-too-many costs $4,100?

Think about that. And it gets much worse.

A 2019 study calculated the minimum average cost of a DUI in every state at $3,294, and a 2021 update brought that figure up to $4,100. Increases in insurance rates drove that change, and think about what has happened to insurance rates since 2021.

There’s a state-by-state breakdown that shows DUI costs in seven states at $5,000 or higher, with Alaska at $5,793. Mississippi is on the low end at $2,309, among the six states that were below $3,000.

But a 2023 report from Forbes Advisor takes the time to do a more practical analysis of the costs of a DUI.

A DUI could cost you $20,000 or more, according to the analysis. That’s because it includes the cost of a lawyer and more realistic estimates on what things could cost post-pandemic.

While the difference in the surveys comes down to “minimum cost” vs. “what it could cost,” there’s a lot to think about in the details of both. In a matter of hours, you could go from thinking about that one drink (which could lead to another and another) to thinking about bail fees, attorney’s fees, fines and court costs, probation and monitoring fees, DMV fees, towing/storage fees, bills for an ignition interlock device and higher car insurance for years to come.

Attorney Richard Harris breaks down the cost of a DUI in Nevada in information posted on the website The Defenders. The cost of a first-time DUI in Nevada is estimated at $10,000, according to the site.