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December 2005
NHM Health Focus:
National Drunk & Drugged
Driving (3D) Prevention Month
"Since 1981, every President of the United States has demonstrated
his commitment to preventing impaired driving by proclaiming December
as National Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month." (NHTSA)
"Despite the tireless efforts of thousands of advocates, impaired
drivers continue to kill someone every 30 minutes, nearly 50 people
a day, and almost 18,000 citizens a year. NHTSA and its partners are
working together to put a stop to these deadly statistics. "(NHTSA)
"Traffic fatalities in alcohol-related crashes fell by 2.4 percent,
from 17,105 in 2003 to 16,694 in 2004. The 16,694 alcohol-related fatalities
in 2004 (39% of total traffic fatalities for the year) represent a 4-percent
reduction from the 17,308 alcohol-related fatalities reported in 1994
(43% of the total)." NHTSA
Quick Facts
About Drunk and Drugged Driving
- An alcohol-related motor vehicle crash kills someone every 31 minutes
and nonfatally injures someone every two minutes (NHTSA 2004).
- Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved
in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are
generally used in combination with alcohol (NHTSA 1993).
- Each year, alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost about
$51 billion (Blincoe et al. 2002).
- Most drinking and driving episodes go undetected. In 2002, about
1.5 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence
of alcohol or narcotics (NHTSA 2004). That’s slightly more than
one percent of the 120 million self-reported episodes of alcohol–impaired
driving among U.S. adults each year (Dellinger et al. 1999).
- To further decrease alcohol-related fatal crashes, communities need
to implement and enforce strategies that are known to be effective,
such as sobriety checkpoints, 0.08% BAC laws, minimum legal drinking
age laws, and "zero tolerance" laws for young drivers (Shults
et al. 2001, Shults et al. 2002).
Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum has
these additional resources related to handwashing and disease prevention.
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