According to the United States Department of Transportation's
Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's
National Center for Statistical Analysis:
- Fatal crashes cost society $150 billion every year.
- Approximately one million people are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes annually.
- Alcohol involvement is the single greatest factor in motor vehicle deaths and injuries. While about 5 percent of all crashes involve the use of alcohol, 38 percent of fatal crashes do.
- Anti-impaired driving efforts work.
- Many states now are lowering the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) defining impaired driving from .10 percent to .08 percent.
- A BAC as low as .02 percent has been shown to affect driving ability and crash probability.
- The probability of a crash increases significantly at a BAC of .05 percent and even more rapidly at .08 percent.
- Among drivers with BACs above .15 percent on weekend nights, the probability of death in a single-vehicle crash is more than 380 times higher than it is for nondrinking drivers.