Impaired Driving: Get the Facts

Every day, 28 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 53 minutes.¹  The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $44 billion.²

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

How big is the problem?

• In 2014, 9,967 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 1,070 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2014, 209 (19%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver.¹
• Of the 209 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2014, over half (116) were riding in the vehicle with the alcohol-impaired driver.¹
• In 2014, over 1.1 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 (legal and illegal) are involved in about 16% of motor vehicle crashes.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 2014, three out of every 10 were between 21 and 24 years of age (30%). 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 2014, 29% had BACs of 0.08% or greater.¹
• Motorcyclists ages 40-49 have the highest percentage of deaths with BACs of 0.08% or greater (40% in 2013).⁷

Drivers with prior driving while impaired (DWI) convictions:

• Drivers with a BAC of 0.08% or higher involved in fatal crashes were seven times more likely to have a prior conviction for DWI than were drivers with no alcohol in their system. (7% 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.^4,10
• Requiring ignition interlocks for all offenders, including first-time offenders ⁹
• Using sobriety checkpoints.⁸
• Putting health promotion efforts into practice that influence economic, organizational, policy, and school/community action.^11,12
• Using community-based approaches to alcohol control and DWI prevention.^10,12,13
• Requiring mandatory substance abuse assessment and treatment, if needed, for DWI offenders.¹⁴
• Raising the unit price of alcohol by increasing taxes.¹⁵

Areas for continued research:

• Reducing the illegal BAC threshold  to 0.05%.^16-20
• Mandatory blood alcohol testing when traffic crashes result in injury.²¹

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:

• Before drinking, designate a non-drinking driver when with a group.
• Don’t let your friends drive impaired.
• If you're out 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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Social Media Resources for Sharing

Help spread the word about the dangers of drunk driving. Visit the CDC Safe Driving Pinterest board for more ready-to-share graphics.

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CDC Vital Signs

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References

1. Department of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts 2014 data: alcohol-impaired driving. Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812231.pdf.
2. Blincoe LJ, Miller TR, Zaloshnja E, Lawrence BA. The economic and societal impact of motor vehicle crashes, 2010. (Revised). Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015. [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pubs/812013.pdf.
3. Department of Justice (US), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Crime in the United States 2014: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington (DC): FBI; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-29.
4. Jewett A, Shults RA, Banerjee T, Bergen G Alcohol-impaired driving among adults— United States, 2012. MMWR Morbi Mortal Wkly Rep. 2015;64(30):814-17.
5. Compton RP, Berning A. Traffic Safety Facts Research Note: drugs and alcohol crash risk. Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www.nhtsa.gov/Driving+Safety/Research+&+Evaluation/Alcohol+and+Drug+Use+By+Drivers.
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. Department of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts 2013 data: motorcycles. Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812148.pdf.
8. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Reducing alcohol-impaired driving: publicized sobriety checkpoint programs. [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www.thecommunityguide.org/mvoi/AID/sobrietyckpts.html.
9. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Reducing alcohol-impaired driving: ignition interlocks. [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www.thecommunityguide.org/mvoi/AID/ignitioninterlocks.html.
10. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Motor vehicle-related injury prevention: reducing alcohol-impaired driving. [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www.thecommunityguide.org/mvoi/AID/index.html.
11. 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.
12. Holder HD, Gruenewald PJ, Ponicki WR, et al. Effect of community-based interventions on high-risk drinking and alcohol-related injuries. JAMA 2000;284:2341-7.
13. Shults RA, Elder RW, Nichols J, et al. Effectiveness of multicomponent programs with community mobilization for reducing alcohol-impaired driving. Am J Prev Med 2009;37(4):360-371.
14. Higgins-Biddle J, Dilonardo J. Alcohol and highway safety: screening and brief intervention for alcohol problems as a community approach to improving traffic safety. Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2013 DOT HS 811 836.
15. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Reducing excessive alcohol use: increasing alcohol taxes. [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www.thecommunityguide.org/alcohol/increasingtaxes.html.
16. Howat P, Sleet D, Smith I. Alcohol and driving: is the .05% blood alcohol concentration limit justified? Drug Alcohol Rev 1991;10(1):151-66.
17. Wagenaar AC, Livingston MD, Staras SS. Effects of a 2009 Illinois alcohol tax increase on fatal motor vehicle crashes. Am J Public Health 2015;105(9):1880-5.
18. 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;38:493-9.
19. Fell JC, Voas RB. The effectiveness of a 0.05 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for driving in the United States. Addiction 2013;109:869-74.
20. Blais E, Bellavance F, Marcil A, Carnis L. Effects of introducing an administrative .05% blood alcohol concentration limit on law enforcement patterns and alcohol-related collisions in Canada. Accid Anal Prev 2015;82:101-11.
21. National Committee on Injury Prevention and Control. Injury prevention: meeting the challenge. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1989, p.124.