It’s an alarming statistic, but unfortunately it’s also a familiar one. Every 24 hours in the United States, 28 people die in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents. That works out to be one person every 53 minutes. While the overall rate of drunk driving fatalities is down 33% in the past three decades, we Americans still have a one in three risk of being involved in an alcohol-related crash in the course of our lifetimes. These accidents can result in catastrophic personal injury and death.
Statistics can’t do justice to the suffering, pain and overwhelming loss experienced by the victims of drunk drivers and the families of those victims. As Richmond drunk driving accident attorneys, we’ve represented individuals severely injured by drunk drivers as well as people who have lost family members as a result of drunk drivers. Such overwhelming losses will impact the victims and their families for their entire lives.
From an economic standpoint, drunk driving affects all of us. In the United States, the economic impact from deaths and injuries caused by drunk driving costs our country $52 billion per year. That cost, along with the cost of other accidents, raises insurance premiums for every consumer.
With all of this in mind, we offer some proactive steps that you can take to help prevent drunk driving.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the average drunk driver has driven under the influence of alcohol more than 80 times before his or her first arrest. The MMWR also estimates from recent surveys that 4.2 million U.S. adults drove under the influence of alcohol at least once in the past month.
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. As Richmond drunk driving accident attorneys and personal injury lawyers, we urge you to always designate a sober driver or arrange alternative transportation when you’ve been drinking to avoid the potentially life-threatening results of driving drunk.