If you've been out with your family and had a little too much to drink, you should think twice before getting behind the wheel -- or you could be charged with child endangerment.

When a driver is charged with a DUI and has one or more children under the age of fourteen in the car, he or she can also be charged with the separate offense of "endangering a child while driving under the influence."

Getting a DUI is bad enough. But there are a few ways to make it even worse.

The state of Georgia is already known for having some of the toughest DUI laws in the land, according to Yahoo! Voices. Your first drunken driving offense could cause you to lose your license for a whole year.

Under Georgia's DUI laws, it's illegal to drive with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%. But that's just a DUI at the most basic level.

The next time you reach for a drink, think about how much a DUI conviction could cost you.

A recent a study conducted by the Automobile Club of Southern California put a huge price tag on basic first-time DUIs in that state. According to the study, a DUI can cost up to $15,649 in California, reports the Los Angeles Times.

And those numbers don't even take into account other associated DUI costs.

How can a DUI can cost you? Let us count the ways:

If you're driving drunk and get into a crash, don't make your case worse by fleeing the scene.

If you accidentally hit someone and cause injury, running away won't solve your problems, especially if someone was accidentally killed. In Georgia, you could face charges of hit-and-run, or fleeing the scene of an accident.

How do DUI laws work in Georgia?

DUI sentencing and penalties are based on the level of a DUI infraction. The higher up you go on the DUI chain, the stiffer your punishment gets.

Here's a primer on Georgia DUI laws and the levels of DUI offenses in Georgia.

Driving a car under the influence of alcohol isn’t the only way to get into a fatal accident. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, 50 percent of all boating fatalities each year are attributed to alcohol. In fact, the U.S. Coast Guard warns that alcohol is more dangerous on water than it is on land. Anyone who goes boating on Lake Lanier knows these statements to be true.

After last year’s deadly boating accidents, a state legislator has taken it upon himself to introduce a new bill to improve boating safety.

Texting while driving can be just as deadly as drunken driving. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, texting while driving creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted.

We've written about distracted driving many times on this blog, largely because the dangers of texting while driving are very similar to drinking and driving.

Here's a recap of some of our posts.

You've heard of open container laws. Many states have them, including Georgia.

It's illegal to drive while under the influence. It's also illegal to have an open container of alcohol near you when you are driving.

So what is Georgia's open container law and how does it work?

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), distracted driving creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted. Combine distracted driving with drunken driving, and you get a disaster waiting to happen.

There have been many initiatives to try to curb distracted driving. But the use of handheld devices and smartphones makes it difficult for drivers to keep their attention focused on the road.

This is especially the case with younger drivers, who are infamous for texting while driving. The idea that many people have is that they can multitask and do both.

But all it takes is one second for the unthinkable to happen. Here are some apps that can help deal with texting while driving:

Once you've been arrested for DUI and have had a BAC test, you might think there's no hope, especially given Georgia's implied consent laws.

That's not always true. Did you know that there are ways to challenge a blood alcohol test?

Here are four ways to potentially challenge a DUI blood test or a DUI breath test: