Fatalities and Fatality Rates in Alcohol-Impaired Crashes by State, 2005–2006

Subramanian, Rajesh · 2008 · ROSA P / National Center for Statistics and Analysis (U.S.)

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This research note by Rajesh Subramanian (2008) analyzes state-level trends in alcohol-impaired driving fatalities and fatality rates for the years 2005 and 2006. The study addresses the need to monitor the effectiveness of impaired-driving programs, which target drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher, a threshold illegal in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The primary objective is to compare changes in overall fatality rates against specific alcohol-impaired fatality rates to identify regional disparities and trends. The analysis utilizes data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), specifically the 2005 Final and 2006 Annual Report Files. To calculate fatality rates, the study combines FARS data with vehicle miles of travel (VMT) estimates released by the Federal Highway Administration in December 2007. Alcohol involvement is determined using reported BAC values and imputed values where data was missing. The study defines alcohol-impaired crashes as those involving at least one driver or motorcycle operator with a BAC of 0.08 or above. The results indicate that while the overall national fatality rate declined from 1.46 to 1.41 fatalities per 100 million VMT between 2005 and 2006, the alcohol-impaired fatality rate remained flat at 0.45. Nationally, there were 13,470 alcohol-impaired fatalities in 2006. State-level performance varied significantly: 26 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia saw a decline in their alcohol-impaired fatality rates, resulting in 513 fewer fatalities. This decrease was partially offset by an increase of 402 fatalities in the remaining 24 states where rates were flat or increased. Montana recorded the highest alcohol-impaired fatality rate in 2006 at 0.91 per 100 million VMT, while Utah had the lowest at 0.21. These rankings remained consistent with 2005 data. Approximately 46% of all alcohol-impaired fatalities occurred in states with rates between 0.30 and 0.45, while 18% occurred in states with rates of 0.61 or higher. The significance of these findings lies in the divergence between overall safety improvements and stagnant progress in reducing alcohol-impaired crashes. Although total fatalities decreased by 868 nationally, the lack of decline in alcohol-impaired rates suggests that countermeasures targeting drunk driving may have reached a plateau in many jurisdictions. The data highlights substantial geographic variation, indicating that states with higher fatality rates may require targeted interventions. The report provides a baseline for evaluating the efficacy of per se BAC laws and informs future policy decisions aimed at reducing alcohol-related traffic deaths.

Key finding

The national alcohol-impaired fatality rate held flat at 0.45 per 100 million VMT in 2006, with Montana highest at 0.91 and Utah lowest at 0.21.

Methodology

dataset

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (7 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• comparative international
• alcohol

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes