Men are behind 80 percent of drunken-driving episodes, according to a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Young men, ages 21-34, are involved in 32 percent of all such episodes.
It’s based on self-reported data from the CDC’s 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, which the CDC analyzed to estimate statistics on alcohol-impaired driving.
The agency found that an estimated 4.2 million adults reported driving drunk at least once in the preceding 30 days, which the CDC translated into a national drunken-driving rate of 505 episodes per 1,000 people each year.
The drunken-driving rate varies by more than fourfold among states, however.
The states with the highest rates are:
• Hawaii: 995
• Nebraska: 955
• Montana: 885
The states with the lowest rates are:
• Utah: 217
• New Mexico: 273
• Oregon: 285
The regional drunken-driving rates are:
• Midwest: 573
• South: 525
• Northeast: 481
• West: 422
In other findings, 85 percent of drunken-driving episodes are reported by people who also reported binge drinking. And 4 percent of the adult population reported binge drinking at least four times per month.
The CDC suggests several “effective interventions” that states and communities could consider to prevent drunken-driving crashes, which account for about one-third of all U.S. crash fatalities in the past two decades.
Recommended interventions include:
• Expanding the use of publicized sobriety checkpoints.
• Increasing alcohol taxes.
• Enforcing laws regarding blood alcohol content and drinking age.
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