Drunk Driving Statistics - Dui Statistics - Teen DWI 2007, 2008

Drive safelyBy Heidi Aiazzi • Staff Writer • October 24, 2008

With the increasing number of cars and trucks on the roads, accidents have become an all too common sight.

In fact, an estimated 115 people die every day in vehicle accidents in the United States--one death every 13 minutes--and many more receive serious injuries.

Such injuries and death often leave the victims and their families devastated, while those who are between 15-24 and/or above 75, are the ones who are most often involved in car accidents.
Accidents are caused by many different occurrences, including talking to other passengers, drivers playing with the radio, eating or drinking while driving, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and--in 25% of the car accidents reported--talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel of the car.

Here are some car accident statistics, which might be helpful in making people aware about trends in car accidents, and thus hopefully reducing the number of car accidents in our area and increasing the safety for those on the road.

On an average, there are more than 6 million car accidents on the roads of the US, annually. More than 3 million people get injured due to car accidents, and more than 2 million of these injuries are permanent. About 40% of car accident fatalities occur because of a drunk driver. About 30% of the car accident fatalities can be attributed to driving above the speed limits and 33% and because of reckless driving that causes the car to go off the road and result in an accident. The majority of car accident victims are the drivers, followed by passengers, pedestrians, and lastly, cyclists.

For those in the age group of 1-30 years, the leading cause of death is due to being involved in a car accident; and in more than half of all car accident fatalities, the deceased were found not to be wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash.

The risk of a teen driver being involved in motor vehicle accidents is astounding. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Each Year over 5,000 teens ages 16-20 die due to fatal injuries caused car accidents and about 400,000 drivers age 16-20 will be seriously injured. 16-year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age, and are three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than the average of all drivers. For each mile driven, teen drivers ages 16-19 are about four times more likely than other drivers to crash. According to a survey of 1,000 people ages 15-17, conducted by the Allstate Foundation, more than half of young drivers use cell phones while driving, 69 percent said that they speed to keep up with traffic, 64 percent said they speed to go through a yellow light, 47 percent said that passengers sometimes distract them, and nearly half said they believed that most crashes involving teens result from drunk driving. According to NHTSA, 31 percent of teen drivers killed in 2006 had been drinking, 25 percent had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. Passengers may be one of the biggest distraction points for teen drivers. Statistics show that 16- and 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger. The car accident death rate for teen male drivers and passengers is more than one and a half times female teen driver (19.4 killed per 100,000 male drivers compared with 11.1 killed per 100,000 female drivers.
On the positive side, graduated drivers license programs appear to be making a difference. Fatal crashes involving 15- to 20-year olds in 2005 were down 6.5 percent from 7,979 in 1995, to the lowest level in ten years.

There have been 243 deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents in Nevada thus far this year so authorities continue to ask drivers to slow down and drive safely.

Other DUI Statistics

HOME


Nevada California USA teenage drunk driving statistics