10 States Where Drunk Driving Kills the Most People

Economy

Published: October 8, 2017 7:51 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 7:25 am

Between 2007 and 2014, the number of people killed in crashes on U.S. highways dropped by 21%, from 41,259 to 32,744. Fatalities increased to 35,485 in 2015 and to 37,461 in 2016, reducing the improvement by more than one-third.

Similarly, alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities are up from 9,943 in 2014 to 10,497 in 2016, an increase of about 5.6% in just two years. Drunk driving fatalities accounted for about 12% of the increase between 2014 and 2016, but 28% of the increase between 2015 and 2016.

Fatalities in crashes involving drunk drivers accounted for 28% of all highway deaths last year, the lowest percentage since 1982 when the NHTSA began reporting data related to alcohol-impaired driving.

The data were released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency noted that the two-year percentage increase in total highway deaths was the most since the increases in 1964 and 1965.

The largest percentage increase in what the NHTSA calls the “human choice” category came in the failure to use safety restraints (up 4.6% year over year), speeding (up 4%), and drunk driving (up 1.7%).

According to the NHTSA’s report for 2016, 29 States and the District of Columbia saw year-over-year increases in the number of alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities, with the largest increase of 148 fatalities in California followed by 53 more in Florida. In 17 states and Puerto Rico the number of deaths attributed to drunk driving declined and in 4 states there was no change

Here are the 10 states posting the largest percentage fatalities attributed to drunk-driving in 2016: