State Numbers Suggest Too Many Drunk Drivers

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety released it’s 2009 numbers and the analysis of the resent drunk driving study. The report included findings of:

• From 2004–2008, Minnesota averaged 179 alcohol-related traffic deaths and 37,524 DWIs annually.
• Seventy-eight percent of drinking drivers killed were not wearing seat belts.
• Males accounted for 74 percent of all DWIs — down from 79 percent in 2000 and reflecting a steady climb of female DWI offenders.
• Motorists ages 20–29 represented 43 percent of DWI arrests.
• One in 12 of the DWI arrests were motorists under age 21.
• Sixty percent of violators were first-time offenders, yet 14,405 (40 percent) had two or more DWIs on record.
• The average alcohol concentration among first-time offenders was 0.146.
• In all, one in eight Minnesota drivers — 523,891 — has a DWI on record,
• One in 18 have two or more DWIs.
• DPS reports 41 percent of those who incur one violation will incur a second DWI.
• The report shows that 82 percent of motorists arrested for DWI resulted in a criminal conviction for driving while impaired by alcohol.
• Nearly half (49 percent) of the DWI arrests were made on Saturdays and Sundays.
• The Twin Cities’ metro area and the 80-county greater Minnesota each accounted for about one-half of all 2008 DWI arrests.
• Two-thirds of the 163 total alcohol-related deaths in Minnesota occurred outside the Twin Cities’ metro
• Greater Minnesota accounted for 319 total traffic deaths, of which 107 (34 percent) were impaired driving-related

There is a lot of information here. Hopefully, increased education and law enforcement will continue to work on these numbers. The numbers suggest problems that law enforcement and maybe the legislature will have to further address. It may require another look at the joint and several laws. When the recent law was revised, bars were granted reduced liability when they serve a drunk and the drunk causes a tragedy. It’s time that the law change be revisited.