| 2008 CRASH FACTS
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 approximately 10% of the total crashes in 2008, they resulted in 36% of all persons killed in crashes. Alcohol-related crashes were almost 5 times more likely to result in death than those not related to alcohol (3.9% of the alcohol-related crashes resulted in death, compared to 0.8% of crashes which were not alcohol-related). "PDO Crashes" in the table below refers to property damage only crashes.
Five-Year Trends
There were 492 driver and passenger deaths in alcohol-related
crashes in 2008, while 444 (90%) 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 (68% 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.
Just under half (46%) of alcohol-related fatal crash victims were the result of crashes occurring onSaturday and Sunday, while fatal crash victims of non-alcohol-related crashes tended to be distributed fairly evenly through the week.
76% of alcohol-related crashes occur at night. The graph
below shows the breakdown of alcohol-related crashes by day
and night. In 2008, 14% of all holiday crashes involved alcohol use; however, 44% 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.
In
2008, roughly three out of four drinking drivers in crashes
were male (across most age groups), with only slight
variations among the age groups. The table below does not
include an additional 76 drivers for whom age and/or sex
were not known.
In
2008, as the table below shows, the two age groups
from 21 to 30 had the highest percentage of drinking drivers
within their respective age groups. After age 45, the
percentage of drinking drivers within the succeeding age
groups steadily declined. The under 16 age group continues
to be of
particular concern, as it included 13
drinking drivers.
The graph below shows drinking driver deaths as a percentage of total driver deaths within each respective age group for 2008 crashes. The age group from 21 to 25 had the highest percentage, with over 55% of the driver deaths in this age group being a drinking driver. The 16-20 age group increased slightly from 21.4% in 2007. In 2008, there were no drivers under the age of 16 who's death resulted from combining alcohol usage and driving without a license.
Act 31, commonly known as the "Underage Drinking Law," went into effect on May 24, 1988. From that year, and until 1994, the number of underage drinking drivers involved in Pennsylvania crashes declined each year. From 1997 until 2002, the amount of underage drinking drivers remained consistently high. From that point until now there has been a downward trend with 2005 and 2006 disrupting the steady decrease.
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