Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, most residents in California find themselves fully immersed in the holiday season. From putting up decorations to buying and wrapping gifts to attending holiday functions, there is no shortage of special activities that happen at this time of year. Unfortunately, the increase in special events may put Californians at a greater risk of being involved in an accident caused by a drunk driver.
According to KVTU.com, the 2016 Christmas holiday saw 621 people arrested for and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Over the 2017 Christmas holiday period, more than 900 people were charged with drunk driving throughout the state. These arrests took place over the course of only three days and six hours and do not reflect the arrests or accidents that may have occurred throughout the month of December.
The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility indicates that across the country last year, drivers impaired by alcohol accounted for 29 percent of all vehicular fatalities. An estimated 3.3 people per every 10,000 were killed by drunk drivers. More than 37,000 people died in automobile crashes in 2017 and more than 10,800 of them died in drunk driving crashes.
Over the Christmas holiday in 2016, 32 percent of all automotive deaths happened in crashes in which a driver had a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or higher. Another four percent of deaths involved drivers with BAC levels below the legal limit but still measurable. It is a known fact that a person’s judgment and ability to accurately operate a vehicle may be impaired even if their BAC is lower than 0.08 percent.
