New state fact sheets on alcohol-impaired driving

Every day, 29 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This is one death every 50 minutes. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $44 billion. Nationally, alcohol-impaired drivers got behind the wheel 147 million times in 2018.

CDC released new state-based fact sheets on alcohol-impaired driving deaths and an overview of proven strategies to reduce or prevent alcohol-impaired driving. During NHTSA’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over national enforcement mobilization campaign (August 19-September 7), CDC encourages states to use the new state-based fact sheets to identify strategies to help people stay safe on the road.

These include: 

• Alcohol-impaired driving laws 
• Publicized sobriety checkpoints 
• High-visibility saturation patrols 
• Ignition interlocks for all, including first time, convicted offenders 
• Alcohol problem assessment and treatment programs 
• Alcohol screening and brief interventions 
• Multi-component interventions that combine several programs and policies 
• School-based instructional programs 

Dedicated efforts have decreased the rates of alcohol-impaired driving and related fatal crashes in the U.S. since the 1980s. Still, alcohol-impaired drivers get behind the wheel millions of times each year. We can continue to lower these rates by identifying relevant strategies for each state to address the problem of alcohol-impaired driving.