Why undertake this research?

Alcohol-impaired driving is a major factor in the tens of thousands of deaths that occur every year on U.S. roads. Although significant progress was made during the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s in reducing this problem, since then progress has stalled. Since 1997, about a third of all fatally-injured passenger vehicle drivers had blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) at or above the legal limit.
 
Alcohol affects many of the abilities associated with driving including concentration, perceptions, judgment, decision-making, and reactions. As a result the risk of a crash increases rapidly as a driver’s BAC increases. The primary means used to discourage alcohol-impaired driving has been the passage of strong laws and their enforcement, with sanctions for those who are caught. Laws in every State make it illegal to drive if BAC measures 0.08 g/dl or above. The majority of drivers obey these laws, but many violate them frequently and they do so without substantial risk of being caught. Surveys suggest that drinking drivers made between 809 million and one billion trips in 2001 and drivers with BACs of 0.08 and above made between 40 and 50 million trips (NHTSA, 2003). With approximately 1.4 million drivers arrested for alcohol-impaired driving annually (FBI, 2005), the chances of arrest on any trip for drinking drivers are less than one in 50. Thus, even if every driver convicted of drunk driving was not able to continue to drink and drive, many impaired drivers still would go undetected, and continue to add to the thousands of lives lost on our roads every year.

Drunk Driving Facts

Fact #1

During 2009, 10,839 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-impaired motor vehicle crashes, representing 32 percent of all traffic-related deaths (NHTSA, 2011)

Fact #2

In 2009, 84 percent of (10,102) of drivers with BACs of 0.01 g/dL or higher who were involved in fatal crashes had BACs that were at or above 0.08 g/dL, and 56 percent (6,685) had BACs at or above 0.15 g/dL – almost twice the legal limit. The most frequently recorded BAC among drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes was 0.17 g/dL. (NHTSA, 2011).

Fact #3

Alcohol involvement in fatal crash peaks at night. Between 9pm and 6 am 62 percent of fatally-injured passenger vehicle drivers in 2009 had BACs at or above the legal limit of 0.08 g/dL, compared with 20 percent during other hours (IIHS, 2011).

Fact #4

The IIHS estimates that about 7,440 deaths could have been prevented in 2009 if all drivers on the road had BACs below 0.08 g/dL (IIHS, 2011).