Alcohol-Impaired Driving

The number of alcohol-related traffic crashes was decreasing, but has slowly begun to plateau! Our work must be strengthened to reverse this trend and once again see these numbers decline. Check out these facts on alcohol-related driving to see just how important the issue is.

• Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and non-fatally injure someone every two minutes¹
  
  

• In 2006 there were 17,602 alcohol related fatalities in motor vehicle crashes.
  

• In 2004, about 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics (Department of Justice, 2004)4. That’s less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol–impaired driving among U.S. adults each year⁶.
  
  
• Each year, alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost about $51 billion⁵.
  
  
• Male drivers involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes are almost twice as likely as female drivers to be intoxicated with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or greater³.
  
  
• More than one-third (34%) of all pedestrians age 16 and older killed in traffic crashes in 2005 had BAC levels 0.08% or higher. By age group, the percentages ranged from a low of 9% for pedestrians age 65 and older to a high of 46% for those age 21 to 24¹.
  
  
• In 2005, 30% of all fatal crashes during the week were alcohol-related, compared to 52% on weekends¹.
  
  
• The highest percentage of drivers with BAC levels of 0.08% or higher was for drivers ages 21-24 (32%), followed by ages 25-34 (28%) and 35-44 (23%)¹.
  
  
• Among drivers involved in fatal crashes, those with BAC levels of 0.08% or higher were nine times more likely to have a prior conviction for driving while impaired (DWI) than were drivers who had not consumed alcohol¹.
  

College Students

The majority of college students are making the right choices when they drink. Our goal is to increase these numbers even further.

• 73.7% of college students have NOT driven under the influence of alcohol or other drugs⁸.
  
  
• 98.6% of college students have NOT been arrested for DWI/DUI⁸.

While the majority of college students make the right choices, there are many students campus impaired driving prevention programs need to reach and convince them to change their drinking and driving behaviors.

• 2.8 million students between the ages of 18 and 24 drove under the influence of alcohol in 2001⁷.
  
  
• College drinkers were more likely than non-college drinkers to report driving under the influence of alcohol in the pervious year (31% verses 24%)⁷.

References:

1. Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic safety facts 2005: alcohol. Washington (DC): NHTSA; 2005 [cited 2006 Sept. 25]. Available from URL: www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-30/ncsa/

2. Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic safety facts 2003: children. Washington (DC): NHTSA; 2004d [cited 2004 Nov 4]. Available from URL: www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2003/809762.pdf.

3. Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic safety facts 2003: overview. Washington (DC): NHTSA; 2004b [cited 2004 Oct 19]. Available from URL: www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2003/809767.pdf.

4. Department of Justice (US), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Crime in the United States 2004: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington (DC): FBI; 2004 [cited November 15, 2005]. Available from URL: www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/documents/CIUS2004.pdf.

5. Blincoe L, Seay A, Zaloshnja E, Miller T, Romano E, Luchter S, et al. The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2000. Washington (DC): Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); 2002. Available from URL: www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/economic/econimpact2000/index.htm

6. Quinlan KP, Brewer RD, Siegel P, Sleet DA, Mokdad AH, Shults RA, Flowers N. Alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults, 1993-2002. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2005;28(4):345-350.

7. Hingson, R. et al. Magnitude of Alcohol-Related Mortality and Morbidity Among U.S. College Students Ages 18-24: Changes from 1998 to 2001. Annual Review of Public Health, vol. 26, 259-79; 2005

8. Core Institute. 2005 Statistics on Alcohol and other Drug Use American Campuses. Southern Illinois University. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on September 25, 2006. Available at http://www.siu.edu/~coreinst/

9. Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic safety facts 2008: laws. Washington (DC): NHTSA; 2008 [cited 2009 Feb. 1]. Available from URL: www.nhtsa.dot.gov/.../Articles/Associated%20Files/810882.pdf - 2008-01-14

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