Alcohol Abuse Advice

Dui Statistics ? Deaths And Injuries

Here are some of the most recent DUI statistics surrounding deaths and accidents in the United States.

The number of deaths caused by drunk driving accidents in the USA at the time this article is being written stands at 2699. The number of people injured by these accidents, on average, is over 700,000 per year. The economic cost to society of DUI accidents is estimated to be anywhere between 20 and 150 billion dollars. Over a third of all deaths as a result of traffic accidents are alcohol-related, although this trend has been steadily decreasing over the past 30 years. Texas has the highest number of alcohol-related driving deaths of any state. South Carolina has the highest percentage of road deaths related to alcohol, with 50 percent of all deaths on South Carolina roads being caused by alcohol use.

It is interesting to note that nationwide, the majority of alcohol-related deaths are caused by drivers who are not in excess of the legal 0.08% BAC (blood alcohol concentration) limit. This means that even drivers who have a relatively low level of alcohol in their bloodstream are causing fatal accidents. This makes one wonder about the difference in penalties and laws for a standard DUI conviction compared to a per se conviction – a conviction for being over the legal limit, even if your driving isn’t noticeably impaired.

The statistics are a little bit skewed because of the difference between alcohol-impaired accidents and alcohol-related accidents. Alcohol-related is a term which covers everyone involved in the accident – this could be a passenger, pedestrian or driver. So, for instance, if a sober driver hit a drunk pedestrian who suddenly walked into the road, that would qualify as an alcohol-related accident even though there was no DUI involved. Alcohol-impaired accidents, on the other hand, give a clearer picture of DUI statistics.

Altogether, over a quarter of a million people in the United States have died in alcohol-related accidents over the past decade. The average number of people who die on the roads has stayed relatively static, even though the percentage of those who die in alcohol-related accidents is decreasing. If you are between the ages of 18 and 24 in America, an alcohol-related crash is your number one chance of dying. This age group represents a proportionally high number of deaths and crashes compared to their numbers as a part of the drinking-age population of the USA.