With 58% of fatal accidents caused by someone with a .15 BAC or higher, is there a growing acceptance of Super Drunk laws, which penalize those driving with BAC twice the legal limit or higher? And in the last year, we’ve identified an increased focus on repeat offenders in DUI legislation and policies aimed at reducing drunk driving. That is why groups such as The Century Council have focused efforts on the Hardcore Drunk Driver. Not surprisingly, a repeat offender is four times more likely to cause a deadly crash. Does it take years of exposure before we heed the message? Repeat offenders continue to challenge law enforcement, courts Both? Do public awareness campaigns have a cumulative impact over time, contributing to that trend? MADD’s efforts over the last 20+ years represent one of the most effective public awareness campaigns in history. It would be interesting to study whether age and maturity result in better decisions, or whether alcohol misuse declines as the population ages. This age group is closely followed by the 25 to 34-year-olds, who cause 30% of alcohol-impaired deaths, and then the 35 to 44-year-olds, who cause 25% of these fatal accidents. Drivers between the ages of 21 and 24 cause 34% of all alcohol-impaired deaths. It appears that young drivers are at the highest risk to cause a fatal accident. Not surprising, alcohol-impaired accidents resulting in death are more likely to happen on the weekends versus a weekday. The study goes on to state that fatal crashes are four times more likely to happen at night.
These numbers indicate that 31% of all traffic deaths involve an alcohol-impaired driver. Even more disturbing: 17% of those who died were 14 years old or younger.
That equates to one person every 51 minutes who dies at the hand of a drunk driver. Over 10,000 people died in 2010 because of a drunk driver. Though alcohol-impaired-driving deaths decreased by 4.9% in 2010 compared to 2009, the numbers are still staggering. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released a Traffic Safety Fact Sheet discussing alcohol-impaired driving across the United States.
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