Alcohol Abuse and Cost

Repeat offenders who drink and drive are a very real, very deadly problem. Drivers with BACs of .08 g/dL or higher involved in fatal crashes were 4.5 times more likely to have prior convictions for driving while impaired (DWI) than were drivers with no alcohol (9% and 2%, respectively).

When it comes to drunk driving, it affects more than just the driver. In 2016, approximately 1 in 6 children (14 and younger) died in drunk-driving crashes. Fifty-four percent of the time, it was the child’s own driver who was drunk.

In addition to the human toll drunk driving takes on our country, the financial impact is devastating: based on 2010 numbers (the most recent year for which cost data is available), impaired-driving crashes costs the United States $44 billion annually.