As we head into the holiday season and New Year, it is more important than ever to keep drunk drivers off the road. Recent data that was just released indicates that 10,322 people were killed in drunk driving crashes in 2012.[1] This means that every 51 minutes, a life was lost due to an automobile crash involving a drunk driver. This represents a 4.6% increase in drunk driving deaths when compared to 2011. More troubling is that over half of these crashes involved drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .15 or higher – nearly double the legal limit of .08.
Drunk driving fatalities were on the decrease in preceding years. The 2012 year was the first increase in drunk driving fatalities since 2006. Drunk driving deaths accounted for a staggering 31% of all traffic fatalities for 2012.
Washington State was one of the few bright spots in the study. Drunk driving deaths in Washington decreased 7.6% when compared to drunk driving deaths in 2011.
Obviously more needs to be done concerning education and awareness of drunk driving so that we can stop this upward trend and work towards a goal of zero deaths related to drunk driving. If you see anyone who is impaired attempting to drive a vehicle, stop them. The life you may be saving could be yours or someone’s close to you.
