Data Snapshot: US counties with the most alcohol-related driving fatalities (per capita).
Deaths involving drunk drivers are so common that many people personally know a victim. In 2020, over 11,000 motor vehicle deaths involved alcohol in the United States. Some states and counties have a worse problem with this than others.
Here are the 15 worst counties in the United States for small, medium, and large-sized counties. These are population adjusted.
Texas seems to have a major problem. It’s the state with the most counties on these lists. In fact, 40% of all traffic deaths in Texas involve a driver who was intoxicated. These are preventable deaths, and they have touched far too many of us.
The most maddening part is that so many deaths involving drunk drivers were caused by drivers who had prior offenses.
Laws matter. So does enforcement of those laws. If we truly want to end drunk driving deaths in this country, we can.
I would be interested in how these data correlate with other indicators at the county level. Are these also the counties with the highest alcohol consumption? Spousal abuse? Income? And so on.
It would be interesting to tie these stats to other socioeconomic factors, e.g., county average income/poverty/crime.