The 30 Year Anniversary of DWI Statistics

This year, we’ve marked exactly 30 years since the time when the National Authority for Road Safety (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) alongside with the federal government, intelligence agencies and state police departments have started to collect official statistics of drunk motorists (Driving While Intoxicated- DWI).

For three decades, the authorities have done a lot to reduce the number of DWI and manslaughter on the roads. However, blood testing was and remains now the leading method of calculating the amount of alcohol in blood.

Modern statistics are no less shocking: the drunk drivers still kill at least ten thousand people annually. Thus, the society experiences the challenges of alcoholism on its own back. The primary reasons for drunken driving are depression, hopeless financial position and the banal idleness.

Many researchers have pointed out that with the onset of economic crisis, “the moral character of motorists” has fallen dramatically and continues to fall.

“If today the police patrolling the road from California to New York give up their work in the night from Saturday to Sunday, the crime rate would reach a record level – says Nicholas Twice, a fighter against under-age drinking in San Francisco. – At this time of the day at least 10,000 drivers across the country are trying on handcuffs for DWI. More 10,000 intoxicated motorists sit behind the wheel at any other time. ”

This is a common fact that the night from Saturday to Sunday is the most dangerous time for drivers, passengers and pedestrians. A great number of injuries and accidents happen at this time of the day. However, the police and lawyers for defense during this period, on the contrary, are active on the road.

As a rule, drunken drivers aren’t seen in a high regard by insurance companies, courts, the supporters of a healthy lifestyle, sellers and manufacturers of alcohol (for this reason, they constantly raise the fines, fees and taxes), as well as human rights activists of all fields.