How many people die each year, as a result of drunk driving?

Question

How many people die each year, as a result of drunk driving?

Answer 1

One is too d**n many!

Answer 2

You can probably find the info here...

http://www.madd.org/

Answer 3

13,470 fatalities in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes during 2006................

Answer 4

http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-drivin...

It took less than 10 seconds, using google. Search next time.

It ends up being approximately  0.005% of the population each year.

Hardly any at all, really. Don't know why it's always such a big deal.

Answer 5

That's very difficult to answer.  You can use MADD and NHTSA figures that reflect 13,000 to 14,000 annually, but those numbers do not reflect fatal accidents caused by drunk drivers.  Instead, that number reflects "alcohol related" fatalities, which is a term of art meaning that someone in the vehicle (not necessarily the driver) or a pedestrian had consumed alcohol.  

The government and MADD produce larger numbers by counting everyone involved in an accident as an "alcohol related fatality."  So, if four people drive off a cliff and a person sitting in the back of the car has consumed alcohol but isn’t even drunk, all four people will be (inaccurately) viewed as drunk drivers by the public.

Michigan (where I practice DUI defense) reported 390 alcohol related fatalities last year.  But our state toxicology lab only tested 50 to 60 blood samples from suspected DUI drivers in death cases last year.  And I'll be the first to admit that the police almost always draw blood samples from the drivers in death cases.  But that leaves 330 to 340 cases where the police did not draw blood... It doesn't make sense.

Answer 6

I would say a lot less than die each year from careless driving.

Answer 7

I don't know the exact number, but just one is to many.