National Statistics on Impaired Driving.
Wondering what the numbers behind impaired driving look like at the national level? We pulled some numbers from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2017 Traffic Safety Facts report.
- 10,874 people died in car crashes involving drivers with BACs of .08% (the legal limit) or higher, accounting for 29% of all traffic deaths for the year
- An average of one person died every 48 minutes because of alcohol-impaired driving
- 19% of traffic deaths among children 14 and younger were due to alcohol-impaired crashes
- The 21- to 24-year-old age group had the highest percentage (27%) of drivers with BACs of .08% or higher in fatal crashes
- The percentage of drivers with BACs of .08% or higher in fatal crashes was highest for motorcycle riders (27%), compared to passenger cars (21%), light trucks (20%) and large trucks (3%)
- The rate of alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes was 3.6 times higher at night than during the day
- 68% of alcohol-impaired-driving deaths happened in crashes where at least one driver had a BAC of .15% or higher