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.
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Drunk Driving Facts
Fact #1
During 2005, 16,885 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, representing 39% of all traffic-related deaths (NHTSA 2006).
Fact #2
In 2005, 85 percent (11,921) of the 14,068 drivers with BAC .01 g/dL or higher who were involved in fatal crashes had BAC levels at or above .08 g/dL, and 52 percent (7,330) had BAC levels at or above .16 g/dL. The most frequently recorded BAC among drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes was .17 g/dL (NHTSA, 2006).
Fact #3
The percent of fatally-injured motor vehicle drivers with BACs at or above the legal limit (0.08 g/dL) declined steadily from the 1980s to the mid-1990s. Since then, little progress has been made. For the last decade about a third of fatally injured passenger vehicle drivers have registered BACs of 0.08 percent or above (IIHS, 2008).
Fact #4
Alcohol involvement in fatal crashes peaks at night. Between 9pm and 6am, 58 percent of fatally injured passenger vehicle drivers in 2006 had BACs at or above the legal limit (0.08 g/dL), compared with 18 percent during other hours (IIHS, 2008).