As many as one in five motorists are expected to drive drunk at some point over the long Independence Day weekend and that, along with drugged driving, is expected to catch blame for 40% of the holiday’s highway fatalities. After several decades of decline, experts report intoxicated driving is again on the rise. More from Headlight.News.
The number of highway deaths linked to drunk driving is especially high over the Independence Day Holiday.
The long July 4 weekend is one of the nation’s deadliest holidays from a highway perspective, and intoxicated driving catches much of the blame.
On average, 34 Americans die every day in crashes involving alcohol and drug-related impairment – one every 42 minutes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But July 4 is often referred to as “the deadliest day of the year,” because the number of fatal crashes linked to intoxicated driving quite literally skyrockets.
“Nationwide, about 40% of all the fatal crashes during this holiday weekend are related to drunk driving,” said Will Volk, Georgia Department of Transportation.
Aggressive enforcement paid off…initially
Courtesy: BridgeMichigan.
In the years leading up to the new millennium, experts were cautiously ready to celebrate as the number of drunk driving crashes, injuries and deaths began to tumble. Enhanced enforcement efforts appeared to be paying off.
In Michigan, for example, data provided by the State Police show DUI arrests dropped from 37,182 in 2012 to just 25,318 last year, a 28% decline.
But the numbers aren’t necessarily the whole story, according to a report by Bridge Michigan. “Police say chronic staffing issues mean they’ve had fewer officers on patrol, suggesting more drivers may just be getting away with it,” the news service reported. “Fatal crashes linked to impaired driving unfortunately have increased.”
On the rise
Experts didn’t anticipate drunk driving crashes would increase during the pandemic, as motorists traveled less.
That’s backed up by a new data by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which zeroed in on the period between 2019 through 2022 – earlier, preliminary data suggesting that there was a surge in intoxicated driving triggered by the COVID pandemic.
“In surveys conducted in May 2020, 60% of U.S. adults reported they had been drinking more with the onset of the pandemic,” according to the IIHS study.
Going back over the data, IIHS found the percentage of highway deaths linked to alcohol rose from 28% in 2019 to 30% in 2022. Zeroing in on the Independence Day holiday showed that impaired driving played the primary role in 46% of highway deaths.
A summary of the study reported, “Mental health factors that resulted in more alcohol use, as well as reduced policing, appear to be the primary drivers behind the rise. Researchers also looked at liberal alcohol policies related to delivery and to-go drinks from bars and restaurants.”
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Cracking down
A proposed drunk driving detection system from VinAI.
The surge in Independence Day drunk driving is just part of a broader seasonal surge between Memorial Day and Labor Day, experts note, a period often referred to by highway safety advocates as “the 100 deadliest days of summer.”
The recent rise in intoxicated driving has taken many of those experts by surprise. “I never would have thought” this would have happened, especially with the sharp decline in driving during the pandemic, James Fell is a principal research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, told PBS News Weekend.
“It’s mainly due to lack of enforcement,” he added, echoing the concerns of the Michigan State Police.
In general, tight budgets have led to fewer police patrols and sobriety checkpoints, a trend that the IIHS insists must be reversed to pull drunk and drugged drivers off the road. But that may be even more difficult going forward, several experts warned, with the new federal budget proposed by the Trump administration expected to cut back funding to assist state enforcement efforts.
Federal regulators also are pressing manufacturers to introduce technology that could help detect when a driver is intoxicated and keep them off the road.
Paul, I guess you couldn’t find a roll-over Tesla picture for your article.
I have plenty of Tesla crash pics. Can’t use them all up.