I just watched the 60 Minutes story on a DA in New York State charging at least some drivers in DUI cases with murder by “depraved indifference.” Frankly, and against my preconceived notion, I thought she made a good case.
But let’s stick with the facts. The narrator said the number of deaths caused by drunk driving accidents in the US has not fallen by much in the last ten years.
That does not seem right to me.
Has the number of people killed by drunk drivers decreased in the period 1999 to 2009?
How about between say 1970 to now?
Now the NHTSA has slightl different figures:
wiki= In the United States the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 17,941 people died in 2006 in “alcohol-related” collisions, representing 40 percent of total traffic deaths in the US.
Appears that there has only been a small decrease from 1999- 2007. It has reduced significantly since 1982, however.
I haven’t done all of the work with sussing-out the ratios in Excel, but there was also a significant increase in total miles traveled during that same time. The drunk-driving related fatalities compared to the total miles traveled is falling considerably. By my rough calculations, about 19% from 1999 to 2007 compared to an overall drop in fatalities of 12% per mile traveled. Its probably a combination of safer cars, more stringent DUI enforcement, and less social acceptance of DUI.
I wonder if the number of deaths per driver/passenger miles driven has changed. I’m assuming we drive more than 10 years ago, but I don’t know where to look that up.
Local news reported that when the prices of gas shot up last year driving deaths came down. Do drunks drive less when the price of gas doubles? I don’t know. Just a thought.