According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), impaired driving will affect one in three Americans during their lifetimes.

Occurrence and Consequences

Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 30 minutes and nonfatally injure someone every two minutes (NHTSA, 2003).

During 2002, 17,419 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, representing 41% of all traffic-related deaths (NHTSA, 2003).

In 2001, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics (FBI, 2001). That's slightly more than 1 percent of the 120 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year (Dellinger, 1999).

Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) have been identified as factors in 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. Other drugs are generally used in combination with alcohol (NHTSA, 1993).

Nearly two-thirds of children under 15 who died in alcohol-related crashes between 1985 and 1996 were riding with the drinking driver. More than two-thirds of the drinking drivers were old enough to be the parent of the child who was killed, and fewer than 20% of the children killed were properly restrained at the time of the crash (Quinlan, 2000).

Cost

In its publication "The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes", the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that alcohol-related crashes in 2000 were associated with more than $51 billion in total costs (Blincoe, 2002).

Groups at Risk

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 0.10% or greater (NHTSA, 2003). A BAC of 0.08% is equal to or greater than the legal limit in most states.

At all levels of blood alcohol concentration, the risk of being involved in a crash is greater for young people than it is for older people (Mayhew, 1986). In 2002, 24% of drivers ages 15 to 20 who died in motor vehicle crashes had been drinking alcohol (NHTSA, 2003).

Young men ages 18 to 20 (too young to buy alcohol legally) report driving while impaired almost as frequently as men ages 21 to 34 (Liu, 1997).

In 2002, 22% of the 2,197 traffic fatalities among children ages 0 to 14 years involved alcohol (NHTSA, 2003).

Risk Factors

Adult drivers ages 35 and older who have been arrested for impaired driving are 11 to 12 times more likely than those who have never been arrested to die eventually in crashes involving alcohol (Brewer, 1994).

Nearly three quarters of drivers convicted of driving while impaired are either frequent heavy drinkers (alcohol abusers) or alcoholics (people who are alcohol dependent) (Miller, 1986).

Prevention Strategies

Effective measures to prevent injuries and deaths from impaired driving include:

• Promptly suspending the driver's licenses of people who drive while intoxicated (DeJong, 1998)
• Lowering the permissible levels of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for adults to 0.08% in all states (Shults2001)
• Zero tolerance laws for drivers younger than 21 years old in all states (Shults2001)
• Sobriety checkpoints (Shults2001)
• Multi-faceted community-based approaches to alcohol control and DUI prevention (Holder, 2000 & DeJong, 1998)
• Mandatory substance abuse assessment and treatment for driving-under-the-influence offenders (Wells-Parker, 1995)

Other suggested measures include:

• Reducing the legal limit for blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.05% (Howat 1991; National Committee on Injury Prevention and Control, 1989)
• Raising state and federal alcohol excise taxes (National Committee on Injury Prevention and Control, 1989)
• Implementing compulsory blood alcohol testing when traffic crashes result in injury (National Committee on Injury Prevention and Control, 1989)

Source: Center for Disease Control (CDC) - National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

Relevant Links

Connecticut Coaliton to Stop Underage Drinking
Drinking and Driving - National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
FYI: Impaired Driving - National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence
Impaired Driving - Center for Disease Control (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Impaired Driving - Connecticut Department of Transportation
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Q and A: Alcohol - Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Stop Impaired Driving - National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration