Impaired Driving Crash Statistics

By Sheyna Strommen
Posted February 20, 2002

1. Fatally injured drivers who have been drinking are least likely to have been wearing seat belts. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

2. Last year in the United States nearly 40 percent of all traffic fatalities from Thanksgiving to New Years were alcohol related. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

3. Last year 43.00 percent of all traffic fatalities in North Dakota involved alcohol. (North Dakota Vehicle Crash Facts for 2000) As of December 1, 42.6 percent of all North Dakota's fatal crashes have involved alcohol.

4. This year North Dakota has lost over 100 people in 94 traffic crashes. Forty out of 94 crashes involved alcohol.

5. Last year, North Dakota lost one person every 4.2 days in a motor vehicle crash. (North Dakota Vehicle Crash Facts for 2000)

6. Time is the only way to get alcohol out of the system. If a friend of yours has been drinking, he or she shouldn't drive. Call them a cab. Have them sleep over. Drive them home.

7. White males drink far more than any other group, averaging more than 9 drinks per week. The next highest drinkers are Hispanic males (5.8), white females (4.1), and black males (3.6). Black females average only one drink per week. (Core Institute, 1993)

8. Men are four times more likely than women to drive after drinking.

9. The rate of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes is more than 3 times as high at night as during the day (61 percent vs. 18 percent). For all crashes, the alcohol involvement rate is more than 4 times as high at night (17 percent vs. 4 percent). (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Crash Facts, 2000)

10. In 2000, 30 percent of all fatal crashes during the week were alcohol related, compared to 53 percent on weekends. For all crashes, the alcohol involvement rate was 6 percent during the week and 14 percent during the weekend. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Crash Facts, 2000)

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