DUI Facts: Impaired Driving

Overview

Impaired driving will affect one in three Americans during their lifetimes (NHTSA 2003a).

Occurrence and Consequences

• Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 30 minutes and nonfatally injure someone every two minutes (NHTSA 2003a).
   
• During 2002, 17,419 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, representing 41% of all traffic-related deaths (NHTSA 2003a).
   
• 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).

• 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).
  

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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.