Drink driving reduced by 30% but more needs to be done: CDC report

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDOct 5 2011

A new survey brings welcome news – drink driving in the U.S. is down by nearly 30% from its peak in 2006. This is in spite of the fact that an estimated 4 million Americans still admit to at least once having operated a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, resulting in about 112 million “alcohol impaired driving episodes” and thousands of fatalities, wrote researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a paper published Tuesday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The CDC team used telephone survey data to compile drunk driving statistics for 2010.  They found;

• Men accounted for 81% of the reported drunk driving events
• Young men between 21 and 34 years of age were involved in 32%.
• 85% of impaired driving incidents were reported by people who admitted binge drinking
• 55% were reported by the mere 4.5% of those polled who said they binge drank at least four times a month.
• People who said they didn't always wear their seat belts said they drove drunk at a rate four times higher than those who said they always buckled up.
• Midwesterners had the highest rate of drunk driving, as well as the highest percentage of binge drinking.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden said, “Each of those drunk driving episodes could have resulted in the injury or death of a fellow driver or of a kid biking to school. This is unacceptable…One out of three fatal motor vehicle crashes is related to drunk driving: nearly 11,000 such deaths each year.”

Among states, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Massachusetts rank first, second, and third, respectively, in most drunk driving. New York, New Mexico, and New Jersey rank first, second, and third, respectively, in least drunk driving. (Figures are not available for Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.)

On the happy side this year’s figures represent the lowest percentage of drinking drivers since 1993, the first year the estimates were available. The decline in drunk driving is a bit confusing, Frieden said, as Americans are drinking as much as ever. He suggested that the recession may be keeping drinkers at home and off the road. And he urged states to take stronger actions against drunk driving. “There are other countries around the world that have taken drunk driving more seriously, and their rates of fatal crashes are half or two-thirds lower than ours…They drink just as much and drive just as fast as we do. But this is a huge threat to everyone who uses the road, with tragic consequences,” he said.

But with one-third of driving fatalities still linked to alcohol-impaired driving, they wrote, the U.S. still needs better enforcement of laws and policies that cut back on drunk driving. The CDC suggests sobriety checkpoints, at which police stop cars and determine whether drivers have been drinking. They urge passing laws requiring anyone convicted of drunk driving to install ignition interlock programs that require drivers to pass a breath test before the car will start.

The CDC points to data from the government-funded Children's Safety Network adding that each sobriety checkpoint costs about $12,000 but saves $82,000 in medical costs (trauma care, disability care, etc.) and societal costs (lost earnings, property damage, etc.). Ignition interlock devices cost about $1,200, but are paid for by the offender.