Alcohol-Related Car Accidents

While the number of fatalities in alcohol-related car accidents has steadily declined in the years since all 50 states enacted blood-alcohol limits, drunk driving remains a deadly problem.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly 11,000 people were killed in alcohol-related car accidents in 2009, the last year for which full accident statistics are available. That number represents approximately one-third of all traffic deaths that year.

Although the number of fatalities in alcohol-related collisions has plummeted nearly 50 percent since the NHTSA started tracking drunk driving statistics in 1982, one figure has experienced a small but steady increase that is cause for concern.

Since 2005, the number of fatally injured passenger vehicle drivers with a blood-alcohol level above .08 percent has continued to rise. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), 35 percent of the fatally injured drivers in alcohol-related car accidents in 2009 had a blood-alcohol level of more than .08 percent. That number is an increase of 3 percent from 2005.

Drunk driving is all too often a deadly choice, and these statistics demonstrate that drunk drivers are dangers to themselves and others.

If you live in the Lancaster or Philadelphia areas and you were injured or a family member was killed in a car accident that was caused by a drunk driver, please contact the Pennsylvania car accident attorneys at Atlee Hall & Brookhart for your free case evaluation.