INFGOFF.comWould you believe, Memorial Day weekend is the most dangerous time of the year?
While sunshine, roadtrips and a day off from work are great, they're also apparently a recipe for disaster—and not just for Lindsay Lohan. There were 1,367 DUI busts in California alone during the same time in 2011 and 24 driving deaths, a 41 percent increase over 2010.
More than 2.2 people are expected to travel by car around SoCal this weekend, according to AAA, so everyone needs to buckle up and drive as safely as possible. (And for our celebrity pals elsewhere: You stay safe, too.)
Once the celebs get out of their cars, however, they'd still be wise to remember that bad choices have consequences.
Here are five tales of celebrities whose holiday weekends went horribly wrong:
1. Lindsay Lohan's First Bust, 2007: Do you ever stop and try to recall how Lohan got to the precarious place in her career where she is now? Or why she had to be on the probation that she repeatedly violated in the first place? The Mean Girls star started her decline on May 26, when police found a "usable amount of cocaine" in the car that Lohan unintentionally took off-roading on Sunset Boulevard. She was charged with DUI and felony drug possession and—after another trip to rehab and a second DUI bust in July—she ultimately struck a plea bargain and spent part of a day in jail.
2. Bradley Nowell ODs, 1996: It wasn't the time of year that got him, but Sublime fans will forever remember May 25 as the day Nowell died of a heroin overdose while the band was on tour, leaving behind a wife and year-old son. The singer also never got to see their self-titled debut album become a massive, still-in-radio-rotation-16-years-later, platinum-selling hit. The spin-off band, Sublime wIth Rome, dedicated its 2011 debut, Yours Truly, to Nowell.
3. Snooki's Italian Crash Course, 2011: Those Jersey Shore stars started making headlines the minute they arrived in Florence to aggravate the locals, er, film the series' fourth season, starting with little Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi's literal run-in with a police car. The now-preggers star was behind the wheel and Deena Cortese was in the passenger seat when they bumped into a member of their own police escort on May 30, causing the officers whiplash and minor cuts. Snooki's international driver's license was revoked, leaving her housemates and cabbies to do the chauffeuring.
4. Sean Kingston's Jet Ski Crash, 2011: The "Beautiful Girls" singer was critically injured on May 29 when he crashed into Miami Beach's Palm Island Bridge. He was hospitalized with water inhalation and a broken jaw and wrist—and, when he was about to be discharged, doctors discovered a torn aorta that required two open-heart surgeries to repair. Alcohol didn't factor in, but authorities later determined that Kingston didn't take proper safety precautions and fined him $180 for careless operation of the watercraft.
5. Mischa Barton's Mix-Up, 2007: The former O.C. star needed a trip to the hospital after mixing her prescription antibiotics with a few cocktails at Nicole Richie's Memorial Day barbecue. Not the greatest of decisions on Barton's part, but it was just unfortunate irony that she fell ill at a party that summoned guests with this come-on: "My fellow Americans, it's that time of year to celebrate our country by drinking massive amounts of beer."
Moral of all of these stories, kids: Don't do drugs, don't drink and drive, don't mix alcohol with your antibiotics, and obey all speed limits and watercraft-operation guidelines.
Be safe, and have a healthy, happy holiday weekend!