2006 CRASH FACTS

• In Pennsylvania, drinking and driving remains a top safety issue. In 2006, alcohol-related crashes 13,616, increased from 13,179 alcohol-related crashes in 2005.  Alcohol-related deaths, 545, decreased from 580 alcohol-related deaths in 2005.
  
• Of particular concern is the involvement of drinking drivers under the age of 21. Twenty-four (24%) percent of the driver deaths in the 16-20 age group were drinking drivers, up from 22% in 2005.
  
• Of equal focus is the 21 to 25 age group, in which over 49% of the driver deaths were drinking drivers. this is slightly down from the 51% in 2005. The 26 to 30 age group decreased from 52% in 2005 to 43% in 2006. The 41 to 45 age group had the worst percentage of all groups, 57% up from 41% in 2005 for this age group.
  
• In 2006, alcohol-related deaths were 36% of the total traffic deaths, the same as in 2005.
  

• Pennsylvania continues to take an aggressive posture to prevent and deter drinking and driving (particularly through the widespread use of sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols).

• For state by state statistics from 2001 to 2005

 2006 Briefs

• 545 people died in alcohol-related crashes.
  

• 94% of the alcohol-related occupant deaths (drivers and passengers) were in the vehicle driven by the drinking driver; 77% were the drinking drivers themselves.
  

• 78% of the drinking drivers in traffic crashes were male.
  

• 79% of the alcohol-related crashes were during the hours of darkness, usually on weekends.
  

• On average each day, 37 alcohol-related traffic crashes occurred.
  

• On average each day, 1.5 persons were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes.
  

• On average each day, 29 persons were injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes.

Note: Beginning with 2003 data, alcohol involvement criteria changed to account for both BAC levels and suspected involvement when BAC is unknown. The effect can mostly be seen in alcohol related fatalities for years 2003 and after.

Although alcohol-related crashes accounted for less than 11% of the total crashes in 2006, they resulted in 36% of all persons killed in crashes. Alcohol-related crashes were over 3 times more likely to result in death than those not related to alcohol (3.7% of the alcohol-related crashes resulted in death, compared to 1.1% of crashes which were not alcohol-related). "PDO Crashes" in the table below refers to property damage only crashes.

 

	Fatal Crashes	Deaths	Injury Crashes	Injuries	PDO Crashes
Alcohol-Related	510 (36.2%)	545 (35.7%)	7,580 (11.1%)	10,529 (10.8%)	5,526 (9.4%)
Non-Alcohol-Related	899 (63.8%)	980 (64.3%)	60,747 (88.9%)	87,439 (89.3%)	53,076 (90.6%)
TOTAL	1,409 (100.0%)	1,525 (100.0%)	68,327 (100.0%)	97,968 (100.0%)	58,602 (100.0%)

Five-Year Trends

Alcohol-related crashes increased in 2006, while alcohol-related deaths were the second lowest in the last five years. "PDO Crashes" in the table below refers to property damage only crashes.

	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Crashes	15,601	13,689	13,624	13,179	13,616
Fatal Crashes	548	511	487	537	510
Injury Crashes	9,137	7,746	7,641	7,390	7,580
PDO Crashes	5,916	5,432	5,496	5,252	5,526
Deaths	602	558	542	580	545
Injuries	13,266	11,274	10,822	10,423	10,529
Fatal Crashes per 100,000 Licensed Drivers	6.4	6.0	5.8	6.3	6.0
Deaths per 100,000 Licensed Drivers	7.1	6.6	6.4	6.8	6.4

There were 481 driver and passenger deaths in alcohol-related crashes in 2006, while 450 (94%) were the drinking drivers or their passengers.

Alcohol-related crashes occurring between 8:00 PM and 4:00 AM produced the vast majority of deaths (66% of alcohol-related deaths). In contrast, nearly half of the deaths from non-alcohol-related crashes resulted from crashes occurring between noon and 8:00 PM.

 79% of alcohol-related crashes occur at night. The graph below shows the breakdown of alcohol-related crashes by day and night.

In 2006, 15% of all holiday crashes involved alcohol use; however, 47% of deaths which occurred during holiday weekends were related to alcohol use.  

Motorcyclists had the largest percentage of drinking drivers to total drivers compared to the drivers of other types of vehicles. Drinking drivers of light trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles were also above the average for drivers of all vehicle types. Bus and heavy truck drivers accounted for very few of the drinking drivers.