DUI Facts: Impaired Driving

Overview

Impaired driving will affect one in three Americans during their lifetimes (NHTSA 2003a).

Occurrence and Consequences

• Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 30 minutes and nonfatally injure someone every two minutes (NHTSA 2003a).
   
• During 2002, 17,419 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, representing 41% of all traffic-related deaths (NHTSA 2003a).
   
• In 2001, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics (FBI 2001). That's slightly more than 1 percent of the 120 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year (Dellinger 1999).
   
• Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) have been identified as factors in 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. Other drugs are generally used in combination with alcohol (NHTSA 1993).
    
• Nearly two-thirds of children under 15 who died in alcohol-related crashes between 1985 and 1996 were riding with the drinking driver. More than two-thirds of the drinking drivers were old enough to be the parent of the child who was killed, and fewer than 20% of the children killed were properly restrained at the time of the crash (Quinlan 2000).

• Adult drivers ages 35 and older who have been arrested for impaired driving are 11 to 12 times more likely than those who have never been arrested to die eventually in crashes involving alcohol (Brewer 1994).    
   
• Nearly three quarters of drivers convicted of driving while impaired are either frequent heavy drinkers (alcohol abusers) or alcoholics (people who are alcohol dependent) (Miller 1986).
  

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	Did You Know?
	Implied Consent is a factor in DUI for some states Delaware has an "implied consent" law. That means if you drive in Delaware and are suspected of DUI, you voluntarily agree to a chemical test to determine the degree of impairment. Failure to take the test carries a penalty of loss of license and/or driving privileges for a period of one year for a 1st offense, 18 months for a 2nd offense and 24 months for the 3rd subsequent offense, in addition to the penalties for DUI.