Sobering Drunk Driving Statistics

The Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) statistics say that, in 2004, 16,694 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in the United States. These deaths constitute about 39% of total traffic fatalities.

What about holiday numbers? For 2004, 47.4% of Christmas holiday (meaning 1800h on 12/24/04 to 0559h on 12/29/04) traffic fatalities were alcohol-related, and 50.2% of New Year's holiday (meaning 1800h on 12/31/03 to 0559h on 1/5/04) traffic fatalities were alcohol-related.

MADD says that about three in every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada estimates that in 2004, there were 3,013 traffic fatalities in Canada. Of these, they estimate that at least 1,157 – 38.4%, or more than three deaths per day – involved impaired driving, but that the figure "is a conservative estimate, due to the underreporting that results from the inability to test surviving impaired drivers and reliance on police reports." Moreover, they estimate that in 2004, 355,534 individuals were injured in traffic accidents, and approximately 68,245 of these – or 187 per day – were injured in impaired driving crashes.

And a 2002 Goldfarb Consultants executive summary on public opinion on impaired driving in Canada found that one in 10 drivers admitted that they had driven at least once in the past 12 months while probably over the Criminal Code's blood alcohol limit. Further, 14% of respondents said that in the past 12 months they had been in a vehicle with a driver that they believed was probably over the Criminal Code's blood alcohol limit, and 31% of respondents aged 18-24 said that in the past 12 months they had been in a vehicle with a driver that they believed was probably over the Criminal Code's blood alcohol limit.

Discuss This Article

Have something you'd like to say? Tell us what you think! Read and post comments for this article.

Find a Job

Choose your career:

MedHunters is the world's biggest healthcare job board. Our job directory has 17,877 jobs with 2,472 hospitals and other direct employers.

We want you to find your next job on MedHunters. Need Help? Call us at 1-888-884-8242, email us at info@medhunters.com or sign up now.