For families affected by a drunk driving accident, measuring the extent of loss is impossible. For society as a whole, however, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has published a new report explaining the costs of intoxicated driving.
Experienced Knoxville personal injury lawyers know that there are more than 10,000 annual deaths in the United States as a result of impaired drivers each year. This is an average of one death every 51 minutes. In Tennessee alone, Mothers Against Drunk Driving reported that there were 295 people killed in 2012 drunk driving collisions. Preventing drunk driving is essential to saving lives.
Costs and Prevention of Drunk Driving Collisions
In 2010, accidents resulting from impaired driving cost $47 billion in direct economic costs. This equates to a cost of around $152 per person within the country. When also adding in the costs of lost quality of life or loss of life, the costs of crashes related to impaired driving rose up to $195 billion.
Even minor injuries can be very expensive. The average expenditures in direct economic costs after a minor injury in a collision caused by an impaired driver are $22,000. In this type of accident, the victim will experience an additional loss of $25,000 in impaired quality of life.
When injuries occur that are catastrophic, actual economic losses can total more than $1.1 million and loss of quality of life can reach $5 million.
In many cases, it is not the drunk driver who faces the costs of the dangerous decision to drive while impaired. In fact, 35 percent of victims of collisions with drunk drivers are passengers, occupants of other motor-vehicles or non-occupants such as pedestrians.
The NHTSA is dedicated to trying to keep drunk drivers off the roads through both education and enforcement campaigns. Just recently, the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign ran from August 15 through Labor Day of 2014. The campaign involved more than 10,000 police stations cracking down on enforcing drunk driving laws nationwide. Furthermore, the campaign also involved public education efforts to remind motorists about the risks of drunk driving and alert them to the increased enforcement.
Although the campaign is over, the dangers of impaired driving remain. Even having a single drink can cause you to be a worse driver than you might otherwise be. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that your judgment is affected once you have a Blood-alcohol Concentration (BAC) of just .02. At this BAC level, you experience a decline in visual function and a decline in the ability to multi-task.
Once your BAC is .05, you may experience a loss of small muscle control along with lowered alertness and impaired judgment. Reduced coordination, a reduced ability to track moving objects, difficulty steering your vehicle and a reduced ability to respond in an emergency are all potential consequences of a BAC at this level.
Even before you reach the legal limit, you become a more dangerous driver. Once your BAC is .08, then you have concentration problems, difficulty with speed control, a reduced ability to process information and impaired perception. Don’t let it get to this level. Avoid having a drink and driving.
A Knoxville, TN personal injury lawyer can help collision victims. Contact G. Turner Howard III, Attorney at Law at (844) G3-Help-Me or 865-558-8030.
