2008  CRASH FACTS

• In Pennsylvania, drinking and driving remains a top safety issue. In 2008, alcohol-related crashes 12,752, decreased from 12,867 alcohol-related crashes in 2007.  Alcohol-related deaths, 534, remained relatively the same from 535 in 2007.
  
• Of particular concern is the involvement of drinking drivers under the age of 21. Twenty-two (22%) percent of the driver deaths in the 16-20 age group were drinking drivers, slightly up from 21% in 2007.
  
• Of equal focus is the 21 to 25 age group, in which 55% of the driver deaths were drinking drivers. This age group had the worst percentage of all groups,  and was up from the 48% in 2007. The 26 to 30 age group did not change from 2007 when it was 48%.
  
• In 2008, alcohol-related deaths were 36% of the total traffic deaths, the same as in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
  

• 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).

 2008 Briefs

• 534 people died in alcohol-related crashes.
  

• 90% of the alcohol-related occupant deaths (drivers and passengers) were in the vehicle driven by the drinking driver; 75% were the drinking drivers themselves.
  

• 77% of the drinking drivers in traffic crashes were male.
  

• 76% of the alcohol-related crashes were during the hours of darkness, usually on weekends.
  

• On average each day, 35 alcohol-related traffic crashes occurred.
  

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

• On average each day, 26 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 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.

 

	Fatal Crashes	Deaths	Injury Crashes	Injuries	PDO Crashes
Alcohol-Related	498 (36.7%)	534  (36.4%)	6,911 (10.9%)	9,565 (10.8%)	5,343 (8.8%)
Non-Alcohol-Related	860 (63.3%)	934 (63.6%)	56,537 (89.1%)	79,146 (89.2%)	55,178 (91.2%)
TOTAL	1,358 (100.0%)	1,468 (100.0%)	63,448 (100.0%)	88,711 (100.0%)	60,521 (100.0%)

Five-Year Trends

Alcohol-related crashes and fatalities both decreased 2008, and were the second lowest totals in the last five years. "PDO Crashes" in the table below refers to property damage only crashes.

	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Crashes	13,624	13,179	13,616	12,867	12,752
Fatal Crashes	487	537	510	497	498
Injury Crashes	7,641	7,390	7,580	7,015	6,911
PDO Crashes	5,496	5,252	5,526	5,355	5,343
Deaths	541	580	545	535	534
Injuries	10,822	10,423	10,529	9,825	9,565
Fatal Crashes per 100,000 Licensed Drivers	5.8	6.3	6.0	5.8	5.8
Deaths per 100,000 Licensed Drivers	6.4	6.8	6.4	6.2	6.2

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.

 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.