Three of the four counties on these two days were in California: Riverside (7), Los Angeles (6) and Kern (4), with Arizona’s Maricopa County (7) rounding out the top five. The most alcohol-related fatal crashes on the 17th and 18th occurred in: California (46), Texas (29), Florida (27), Virginia (13) and Louisiana (11). On March 18th, 35 percent of all fatal crashes involved alcohol – the third-highest percentage of any day – while 32 percent were alcohol-related on St. Patrick’s day and the day after are extremely high-risk days for fatal drunk driving accidents. As another heavy drinking holiday in the U.S., both St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, is celebrated by people of all backgrounds around the world. People are already under a holiday daze, but when that state of mind is combined with alcohol and high traffic, the result can be dangerous. On Independence Day, the deadliest hour is 10 p.m., most likely when people are driving home after watching the fireworks show. A total of 253 people were killed in alcohol-related collisions on this summer holiday and 36 percent of all fatal crashes (209) involved at least one drunk driver. The second deadliest day for drunk driving was the Fourth of July, behind only New Year’s Day. Once the new calendar year begins, the roads become much more dangerous. We also found that there were more than twice as many crashes and fatalities on New Year’s Day between midnight and 4 a.m., compared to 8 p.m. Over the five-year study period, there were 232 fatal crashes and a total of 255 people killed on New Year’s Day from alcohol-impaired crashes. While this day had only two more drunk driving fatalities than the next closest day – the Fourth of July – 43 percent of all fatal crashes were alcohol-related. We found that New Year’s Day is – by far – the deadliest and most dangerous day of the year in terms of drunk driving. The 25 Most Dangerous Days for Drunk Driving In fact, among the 25 days with the highest percent of drunk driving crashes, seven are either fixed date holidays or the day after a fixed date holiday. By this measure, the three most dangerous days are either holidays or the day after a holiday – New Year’s Day, The Fourth of July and the day after St. We calculated the percentage of total fatal crashes that involved at least one drunk driver. However, to find out which specific days road users may be at higher risk of being killed by a drunk driver, we went beyond total volume. In general, fatal drunk driving collisions are much more likely to occur on Friday (15 percent), Saturday (24 percent), and Sunday (22 percent). When examining this data, it’s easy to look at totals to see which days are deadliest. When are they the most likely to occur? Are certain days more dangerous? Do some states have bigger problems than others? We worked with data visualization agency 1Point21 Interactive to analyze fatal crash data from 2015-2019 to find out. This amounted to 43,494 crashes and 48,348 deaths that may have been completely preventable.īecause drunk driving crashes are so prevalent, we wanted to find out more. involved at least one alcohol-impaired driver. In fact, from 2015 – 2019, over 25 percent of fatal crashes in the U.S. There is no debate that alcohol use and drunk driving is a significant factor in traffic crashes in the United States.
#Number of drunk drivers killed per week driver
The driver of their own car crashed into a tree, killing his three friends seated in the back with no seatbelts. on New Year’s Eve 2020, a group of friends in Bakersfield, California were driving a few blocks away, but they never made it. Both men who lost their lives were fathers separated from their families.Īt 11 p.m. One of the victims was a trauma nurse and a veteran. On Christmas Eve 2020 at around 3 a.m., two San Antonio men were killed in separate collisions with the same drunk driver – a 26-year-old who entered Southeast Loop 410 the wrong way. Even his helmet could not protect him from the severe impact of the head-on collision. on July 4, 2020, a drunk driver struck a teenager on a motorcycle in Cowley County, Kansas, killing him at the scene.