Deaths from Drunk Driving Decreasing

Reports from the NHTSA show that 2011 was a good year for deaths from drunk driving.

We all know that deaths from drunk driving are a reality, but even if drunk driving doesn’t lead to death it can cause serious damage to other people and their property. Between personal experiences of losing loved ones, public safety announcements, and law enforcement crackdowns the message about the dangers of drunk driving is reaching everyone. You would have to be living in a cave not to have heard any of these.

The good news is that it seems more and more people are taking this fact to heart from the new report that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Report on Deaths from Drunk Driving

In December, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a report in regards to their deaths from drunk driving research. This report was from the information collected for the driving year of 2011, not for 2012.

Their findings included a 2.5% decrease in deaths from drunk driving in 2011, compared to the statistics from 2010. While 2.5% may not seem to be a lot, that’s 247 people that are still alive because of the decrease.

State by State Deaths from Drink Driving

The 2.5% decrease that the NHTSA found was an average across the nation. If broken down state by state, some states did much better than others. The largest decrease was in the state of Maine where there was a 43% decrease in deaths from drunk driving. On the other end, Oregon saw a 39% increase in deaths from drunk driving.

Here is the breakdown by state:

Deaths from drunk driving by state

How did your state fair in its deaths from drunk driving statistics?