4 million adults admit to drunk driving, Midwest faring worst

People in Hawaii were found to be the most likely to decide to drive after a night of drinking, with 995 such episodes per 1,000 people a year-although that does not mean that almost every person is driving drunk, but rather that the cumulative effect of people drinking and driving was found to be at that level. For many residents in western Massachusetts these statistics, although alarming, aren’t that surprising.

Around 2% of American adults admitted to driving while being in intoxicated condition at least once over the last month.

The profile of the “typical” drunk driver in all probability will not shock many, both – a binge-drinking younger male. The survey showed that men with the age between 21 and 34 were responsible for a third of all incidents involving drunk driving.

The Midwest had the most incidents of drunk driving.

The study found that drivers in the Midwest fared the worst. “In 2013, 39 percent of college students reported to binge drinking in the past month”. About 85 percent of those who drive drunk also binge drink, and those who didn’t always buckle up reported driving drunk three times as often as those who always wore their seatbelts, according to the report.

These men “made up a third of all drunk driving episodes, while men overall made up 80 percent of impaired drivers”, researchers said in the study. “Analysis has additionally proven that underage consuming might progress onward to a critical alcohol drawback in adults”.

So how can we reduce these numbers?

The CDC said drunk driving fatalities could be dramatically reduced if states get tough on the issue: enforcing breath-alcohol laws, upping taxes on booze, cracking down on underage drinking, expanding roadside “sobriety checkpoints”, and requiring in-vehicle breathalyzers for people with prior drunk driving convictions.

Mother and father can even do their half, Krakower added, since drawback consuming behaviors typically begin at an early age.

The study was published August. 7 in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.