DUI/DWI News

The Facts Of Impaired Driving

Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and nonfatally injure someone every two minutes (NHTSA 2005).
 
Occurrence and Consequences

• During 2004, 16,694 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, representing 39% of all traffic-related deaths (NHTSA 2005).
• In 2004, about 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics (Department of Justice, 2004). That’s less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol–impaired driving among U.S. adults each year (Quinlan et al. 2005).
• Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are generally used in combination with alcohol (Jones et al. 2003).
• More than two-thirds of child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-related crashes during 1997–2002 were riding with the drinking driver; only 32% of them were properly restrained at the time of the crash (Shults 2004).
  

Cost

• Each year, alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost about $51 billion (Blincoe 2002). 

Groups at Risk

• At all levels of blood alcohol concentration, the risk of being involved in a crash is greater for young people than for older people (Zador 2000).In 2003, 25% of drivers ages 15 to 20 who died in motor vehicle crashes had been drinking alcohol (NHTSA 2004c). 
• Young men ages 18 to 20 (under the legal drinking age) reported driving while impaired almost as frequently as men ages 21 to 34 (Liu 1997). 
• Among motorcycle drivers killed in fatal crashes, 30% have BACs of 0.08% or greater (Paulozzi 2004).
• Nearly half of the alcohol-impaired motorcyclists killed each year are age 40 or older, and motorcyclists ages 40 to 44 years have the highest percentage of fatalities with BACs of 0.08% or greater (Paulozzi 2004).
• Of the 2,136 traffic fatalities among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2003, 21% involved alcohol (NHTSA 2004d).  

Risk Factors

• Nearly three quarters of those convicted of driving while impaired are either frequent heavy drinkers (alcohol abusers) or alcoholics (alcohol dependent) (Miller 1986).
• 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 alcohol (NHTSA 2004a).

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	Did You Know?
	A well known is the fact that the consumption of alcohol can cause impairment Perhaps less recognized is that fact that impairment rises gradually at a lower level but dramatically at a higher level of blood alcohol concentration BAC. About half of auto fatalities involve drivers with BACs of .16 or higher. Impairment occurs at a lower level, but it's especially important to prevent driving with high BACs.