Connecticut DWI / DUI Drunk Driving Accident Statistics

Between 1991 and 2009, the rate of alcohol impaired driving fatalities per 100,000 population has decreased 44% nationally, and 58% among those under 21. These statistics and others are positive indicators of the gains being made to fight drunk driving.  Nonetheless, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 33,808 people died in traffic crashes in 2009 in the United States (latest figures available), including an estimated 10,839 people who were killed in drunk driving crashes involving a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater). (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 2008 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment  Highlights DOT 811 172. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2009. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811172.pdf)

Drunk driving fatalities accounted for 32% of all traffic deaths during 2009.  On average someone is killed in an alcohol-impaired driving crash about every 50 minutes in the U.S.  More than 3 people under the age of 21 die each day in alcohol-impaired driving crashes.  An average drunk driver has driven drunk 87 times before first arrest. (Zador, Paul, Sheila Krawchuk, and B. Moore, Drinking and Driving Trips, Stops by Police, and Arrests: Analysis of the 1995 National Survey of Drinking and Driving Attitudes and Behavior, Rockville, MD: Estat, Inc, 1997.)  One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Traffic Stop and You: Improving Communications between Citizens and Law Enforcement. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 2001, DOT HS 809 212. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/Traffic%20Stop%20&%20You%20HTML/TrafficStop_index.htm)