(Submitted by Safe Communities of Wood County)
During the holidays, the number of travelers on our nation’s roads peak as friends and family come together to celebrate. As a result of holiday parties and gatherings, more drivers are impaired by alcohol. Unfortunately, fatalities resulting from accidents involving alcohol-impaired drivers have become so predictable that many state highway patrol departments now issue fatality estimates, which usually prove to be all too accurate.
In just the few days surrounding Christmas and New Year’s Eve, an average of 304 people die in drunk driving crashes nationwide. There are more motor vehicle deaths during these times and the proportion of drivers and motorcycle riders who are legally drunk exceeds the annual average. Many people try to calculate their blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) after drinking – it’s not so simple. It involves the number of drinks consumed, and the type of drink, the size of the glass, your body weight and gender, the elapsed time, the amount and kind of food in your stomach, and health conditions you may have. Driving with a BAC at zero is the only absolute safe level. The best advice is not to drive after drinking.
The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) reports that 40% of traffic-related deaths during Christmas and New Year’s involve drunk drivers — a 12% increase over the rest of the month of December.
In Wood County over the Christmas holiday period (December 24 – 27, 2015), there were a total of 28 crashes including 12 injury crashes. Of these, one was an alcohol related crash. Safe Communities would like to commend our citizens for the great job in reducing the percentage of alcohol related crashes as opposed to the national average. We would like to thank you in advance for driving sober or choosing safe options to get home if impaired.
