• Alcohol impaired driving is one of America’s most-often-committed and deadliest crimes.
  • In 2008, 37,261 people nationwide were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Alcohol-impaired driving accounted for 32 percent of the motor vehicle traffic fatalities. [Source: NHTSA]
  • In 2008, of the 13,846 alcohol-related fatalities, 53% or 7,378, involved a hardcore offender. Hardcore offenders are persons with a BAC of .15 or greater, or with a prior DWI arrest. [Source: NHTSA]
  • Between 1983 and 2007, more than 220,000 people died in crashes involving hardcore drinking drivers. [Source: NTSB]
  • In 2006, hardcore drinking drivers were involved in a minimum of 9,414 alcohol-related fatalities, the estimated cost of which was over $9.1 billion. [Source: NTSB]
  • Repeat DWI offenders are over represented in fatal crashes, and have a greater relative risk to kill another person. [Source: NHTSA and NTSB]
  • During an average weekend night, about 1 percent of drivers have BACs of .15 or greater and about two-thirds of fatally injured drinking drivers have BACs of .15 or greater. [Source: NHTSA]
  • A driver with a .08 BAC in a fatal crash is 8 times more likely to have a prior DWI conviction than a person with no alcohol present. [Source: NHTSA]
  • Drivers at .15 BAC and above are at least 20 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a non-drinking driver. [Source: NHTSA]
  • It is estimated that half of all drivers arrested and half of those convicted of DWI have BACs of .15 or greater. [Source: NHTSA]
  • Hardcore impaired drivers are not impacted by the same general deterrence methods, such as public awareness campaigns, or only traditional sanctions such as incarceration.
  • Hardcore impaired drivers meet the clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence and abuse.