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NHM Health Focus:
Drunk & Drugged Driving (3D)
December 2009
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"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)
Traffic fatalities in alcohol-related crashes are declining.
In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in drunk driving crashes involving a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater). These deaths constitute 31.6 percent of the 37,261 total traffic fatalities in 2008. (Source: NHTSA, 2009)
In 2007 an estimated 12,998 people were killed in crashes where a vehicle operator had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher, a 3.7 percent decline from the 13,491 fatalities in 2006. http://www.dot.gov/affairs/dot12508.htm
This number is still too high.
Quick Facts
About Drunk and Drugged Driving
- Every day, 36 people in the United States die, and approximately 700 more are injured, in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver.
(CDC).
- 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. 2003).
- 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 2007, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.(FBI, 2008). That's less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.
(Quinlan et al. 2005).
- 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 (McCartt
et al. 2007, Shults et al. 2002).
Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum has
these additional resources related to handwashing and disease prevention.
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