Impaired Driving: Get the Facts

Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 51 minutes.¹  The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $59 billion.²

Thankfully, there are effective measures that can help prevent injuries and deaths from alcohol-impaired driving.

How big is the problem?

• In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.¹
• Of the 1,149 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2013, 200 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver.¹
• Of the 200 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2013, over half (121) were riding in the vehicle with the alcohol-impaired driver.¹
• In 2012, over 1.3 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.³ That's one percent of the 121 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.⁴
• Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are often used in combination with alcohol.⁵

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Who is most at risk?

Young people:

• At all levels of blood alcohol concentration (BAC), the risk of being involved in a crash is greater for young people than for older people.⁶
• Among drivers with BAC levels of 0.08 % or higher involved in fatal crashes in 2013, one out of every 3 were between 21 and 24 years of age (33%). The next two largest groups were ages 25 to 34 (29%) and 35 to 44 (24%).¹

Motorcyclists:

• Among motorcyclists killed in fatal crashes in 2013, 27% had BACs of 0.08% or greater.¹
• Nearly half of the alcohol-impaired motorcyclists killed each year are age 40 or older, and motorcyclists ages 40-44 have the highest percentage of deaths with BACs of 0.08% or greater (44%).⁷

Drivers with prior driving while impaired (DWI) convictions:

• Drivers with a BAC of 0.08% or higher involved in fatal crashes were six times more likely to have a prior conviction for DWI than were drivers with no alcohol in their system. (6% and 1%, respectively).¹

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How can deaths and injuries from impaired driving be prevented?

Effective measures include:

• Actively enforcing existing 0.08% BAC laws, minimum legal drinking age laws, and zero tolerance laws for drivers younger than 21 years old in all states.^3,8,9
• Promptly taking away the driver's licenses of people who drive while intoxicated.¹⁰
• Using sobriety checkpoints.¹¹
• Putting health promotion efforts into practice that influence economic, organizational, policy, and school/community action.^12,13
• Using community-based approaches to alcohol control and DWI prevention.^10,14,15
• Requiring mandatory substance abuse assessment and treatment, if needed, for DWI offenders.¹⁶
• Raising the unit price of alcohol by increasing taxes.^17,18

Areas for continued research:

• Reducing the illegal BAC threshold  to 0.05%.^17,19,20
• Mandatory blood alcohol testing when traffic crashes result in injury.¹⁷

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What safety steps can individuals take?

Whenever your social plans involve alcohol, make plans so that you don’t have to drive after drinking. For example:

• Prior to any drinking, designate a non-drinking driver when with a group.
• Don’t let your friends drive impaired. Take their keys away.
• If you have been drinking, get a ride home or call a taxi.
• If you’re hosting a party where alcohol will be served, remind your guests to plan ahead and designate their sober driver; offer alcohol-free beverages; and make sure all guests leave with a sober driver. 

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References

1. Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts 2013 Data: Alcohol-Impaired Driving. Washington (DC): NHTSA; 2014 [cited 2015 May 18]. Available at URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812102.pdf.
2. Blincoe L, Miller TA, Zaloshnja E, Lawrence, BA. The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010. Washington (DC): Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); 2014.
3. Department of Justice (US), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Crime in the United States 2012: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington (DC): FBI; 2013 [cited Nov 24 2015]. Available at URL https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/29tabledatadecpdf.
4. Jewett A, Shults RA, Banerjee T, Bergen G. (August 7, 2015) Alcohol-impaired driving among adults— United States, 2012. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 64(30):814-17.
5. Jones RK, Shinar D, Walsh JM. State of knowledge of drug-impaired driving. Dept of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); 2003. Report DOT HS 809 642.
6. Zador PL, Krawchuk SA, Voas RB. Alcohol-related relative risk of driver fatalities and driver involvement in fatal crashes in relation to driver age and gender: an update using 1996 data. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 2000;61:387-95.
7. Paulozzi LJ, Patel R. Changes in motorcycle crash mortality rates by blood alcohol concentration and age — United States, 1983 - 2003. MMWR 2004;53(47):1103-6.
8. Shults RA, Sleet DA, Elder RW, Ryan GW, Sehgal M. Association between state-level drinking and driving countermeasures and self-reported alcohol-impaired driving. Inj Prev 2002;8:106—10.
9. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Reducing excessive alcohol use: enhanced enforcement of laws prohibiting sales to minors. [cited 2009 Nov 6]. Available at URL: www.thecommunityguide.org/alcohol/lawsprohibitingsales.html
10. DeJong W. Hingson R. Strategies to reduce driving under the influence of alcohol. Annual Review of Public Health 1998;19:359-78.
11. Elder RW, Shults RA, Sleet DA, et al. Effectiveness of sobriety checkpoints for reducing alcohol-involved crashes. Traffic Injury Prevention 2002;3:266-74.
12. Howat, P, Sleet, D, Elder, R, Maycock, B. Preventing alcohol-related traffic injury: a health promotion approach. Traffic Injury Prevention, 2004;5:208-219.
13. Hingson, R, Sleet, DA. Modifying alcohol use to reduce motor vehicle injury. In Gielen, Ac, Sleet, DA, DiClemente, R (Eds). Injury and Violence Prevention: Behavior change Theories, Methods, and Applications. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006.
14. Holder HD, Gruenewald PJ, Ponicki WR, et al. Effect of community-based interventions on high-risk drinking and alcohol-related injuries. Journal of the American Medical Association 2000;284:2341-7.
15. Shults RA, Elder RW, Nichols J, et al. Effectiveness of multicomponent programs with community mobilization for reducing alcohol-impaired driving. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2009; 37(4):360–371.
16. Wells-Parker E, Bangert-Drowns R, McMillen R, et al. Final results from a meta-analysis of remedial interventions with drink/drive offenders. Addiction 1995;90:907-26.
17. National Committee on Injury Prevention and Control. Injury prevention: meeting the challenge. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1989;5(3 Suppl):123-7.
18. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Reducing excessive alcohol use: increasing alcohol taxes.
19. Howat P, Sleet D, Smith I. Alcohol and driving: is the .05% blood alcohol concentration limit justified? Drug and Alcohol Review 1991;10(1):151-66.
20. Wagenaar AC, Maldonado-Molina MM, Ma L, et al. Effects of legal BAC limits on fatal crash involvement: analyses of 28 states from 1976 through 2002. J Safety Res 2007 38:493-99.