Driving While Impaired Random Facts

Drunk driving causes approximately one-third of all traffic fatalities in the United States.

During the year 2007, alcohol-impaired driving was involved in the deaths of nearly 13,000 Americans.

On average, someone in the U.S. is killed by a drunk driver every 40 minutes.

Roughly three in every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related collision at some point in their life.

Over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics in 2007.
This number is less than 1% of the 159 million self-reported episodes of drunk driving in that year.

According to the law in all 50 U.S. states, a driver is considered to be legally drunk when his or her blood alcohol content (BAC) level is at or above .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL).

To reach a BAC level of .08 g/dL, a man weighing approximately 170 pounds would need to consume four standard drinks in one hour on an empty stomach.

A woman weighing about 140 pounds would need to consume three drinks in one hour.

Alcohol remains in the body for up to six hours after drinking.

It takes approximately six hours after drinking for the body to completely eliminate alcohol from its system with a BAC level of .08 g/dL.

Because alcohol dilutes itself in the water volume of the body in order to travel through it, vital organs that contain a lot of water (such as the brain) are particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol.

Even at BAC levels as low as .02 g/dL, alcohol can affect a person’s response time and driving ability.

The probability of a crash increases significantly after .05 BAC, and even more rapidly after .08 BAC.



thanks to random facts and MADD for statistical information.