This Labor Day, Tampa Bay Monitoring Wants You to Remember: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will partner with law enforcement nationwide during the 2017 Labor Day Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over high-visibility enforcement campaign from August 16 through September 4.

The 2017 enforcement campaign includes the Labor Day holiday weekend, which is one of the deadliest times of the year for drunk-driving fatalities. With NHTSA’s support, State and local law enforcement agencies across the Nation are stepping up enforcement to put an end to drunk driving.

Labor Day Statistics

• Over the 2015 Labor Day holiday period, there were 460 crash fatalities nationwide. Forty percent of those fatal crashes involved drivers who had been drinking (.01+ BAC).  Of those alcohol-related fatal crashes, nearly one third (33%) involved drivers who were impaired (.08+ BAC), and nearly one-fourth (23%) involved drivers who were driving with a BAC almost twice the illegal limit (.15+ BAC).
• In fatal crashes in August during the years 2011-2015, more than half (55%) of the drivers involved who had one or more previous convictions for drunk driving, were impaired with a BAC of .08 or higher.
• Among drivers between the ages of 18 and 34 who were killed in crashes over the Labor Day holiday period in 2015, 44 percent of those fatalities involved drunk drivers with BACs of .08 or higher.

Sobering Statistics

• Approximately one-third of all traffic crash fatalities in the United States involve drunk drivers (with a blood alcohol concentration [BAC] of .08 or higher). In 2015, there were 10,265 people killed in drunk-driving crashes, an increase from the 9,967 people killed in 2014.
• In 2015, approximately 1 in 5 children (14 and younger) killed in traffic crashes were killed in drunk-driving crashes. Fifty-one percent of the time, it was the child’s own driver who was drunk.
• Despite the fact that it’s illegal to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher, one person is killed every 51 minutes by a drunk driver on our Nation’s roadways.
• Of the 10,265 people killed in drunk-driving crashes in 2015, 63 percent were the drunk drivers themselves.
• Men are more likely than women to be driving drunk in fatal crashes. In 2015, 21 percent of males were impaired in these crashes, compared to 14 percent of females.
• Motorcycle riders have the highest overall rate of alcohol impairment in fatal crashes. In 2015, 27 percent of the motorcycle riders killed were riding impaired, compared to 21 percent for passenger cars, and 20 percent for light trucks.