Five chilling statistics about driving under the influence

Alcohol-impaired driving is one of the leading causes of car accidents in America. Despite this, a lot of Americans underestimate how drunk they are and feel like they’re okay to get behind the wheel after they’ve had a drink or two. When you have more than the legal limit of alcohol in your bloodstream, your reflexes are slower, your vision is impaired and you may suffer from seizures and confusion. The Zebra recently collated data from the CDC, the NHTSA, and the DoT to highlight the dangers of driving under the influence. Here are five frightening statistics from that study.

1. Every day 29 people die in car accidents caused by or involving a drunk driver and 800 people are injured every day in drunk driving crashes. According to federal data, people between the ages of 21 and 24 account for one-third of drivers arrested for alcohol-impaired driving.

2. Alcohol changes your brain’s chemistry and loosens your inhibitions. Some of those inhibitions include common sense, fear, and even your ability to drive. When you drink, you feel invincible and both young and old drinkers will experience false confidence. That’s where that blinding belief that “only one drink won’t hurt,” comes from.

3. A 2019 survey by The Zebra reveals that most American drivers recognize the dangers of drunk driving. However more recent data shows that over a quarter of drivers felt that it took four alcoholic drinks for them to feel unfit to drive. In reality, all it takes is two drinks to be a danger to yourself and others.

4. The majority (30.8%) of people believe that after a DUI, a driver should lose their license but only temporarily. 28.1% of the sample said it should take two DUIs to lose your license permanently. 

5. 18.9 percent of respondents in the survey have admitted to driving while buzzed. 2.1% confessed to driving while high, and 5.6% said that they had driven while both buzzed and high. You should note that the law (and your brain’s chemistry under the effects of alcohol) doesn’t recognize the difference between “buzzed” and being drunk.