Drunk Driving Accidents High in 2010
Drunk driving is more than a safety issue. It's a public health issue. In 2009, alcohol-impaired drivers were involved in nearly 11,000 highway deaths. According the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one in every three crash deaths are attributable to drunk driving. As recently as October 2011, the health prevention agency has published other concerning results from their recent drunk driving study.
The CDC originated in 1946. In its earliest incarnation, the agency, then known as the Communicable Disease Center, was created to help combat malaria. Over the past six decades, the agency has become the nation's leader in health promotion and prevention.
Reviewing traffic data from 2010, the CDC published its Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey. In the recent survey, the agency found that almost 300,000 incidents of drunk or impaired driving occurred each day in America.
Data revealed that men are responsible for the majority, 81 percent, of the incidents of drunk driving. Further, young men, who represent only 11 percent of the population, are responsible for 32 percent of all episodes of drunk driving.
Drinking and driving effects everyone, as a drunk driver may generally suffer from poor coordination, disorientation and poor judgment. However, alcohol or drug use can also result in blackouts and double vision. All of these conditions can lead to more than erratic driving, but injuries and death.
Measures and countermeasures for drunk driving have proven to be helpful. Every state has strict laws about the operation of vehicles under the influence of alcohol. Many law enforcement agencies use sobriety checkpoints and zero tolerance standards as a means of keeping unsafe drivers off the roads. Further, technologies such as ignition interlock devices (IIDs) and sensors are used to disabled cars to prevent drunk drivers from operating their vehicles.
Unfortunately, one in every three people in our nation will be affected in some way by a drunk driver. In order to reduce this risk, vigilance is needed. Accurate research about the incidence of drinking and driving is needed to complement the safety initiatives and strategies used by law enforcement and other safety agencies.
