This year, St. Patrick’s Day – March 17, 2023 – falls on a Friday.
The celebratory day is one of the biggest drinking occasions of the year, and this, unfortunately, means more drunk drivers on the roads. With Saint Patrick’s Day falling on a Friday, we can expect a fairly dangerous weekend for drivers and passengers alike.
Review these facts and share the word about the dangers of drunk driving so you can continue merry-making for all the St. Paddy’s Days to come.
If you plan to drink, make sure you refrain from driving and make a plan to get home safely.
With increased police patrols, officers will up working traffic patrols for impaired, aggressive and unsafe drivers!
Every day, about 32 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that’s one person every 45 minutes. In 2020, 11,654 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths — a 14% increase from 2019. These deaths were all preventable.
Car crashes are a leading cause of death for teens, and about a quarter of fatal crashes involve an underage drinking driver. In 2020, 29% of young drivers 15 to 20 years old who were killed in crashes had BACs of .01 g/dL or higher.
In 2020, the highest percentage of drunk drivers (with BACs of .08 g/dL or higher) were the 21-to 24-year-old age group and 25-to-34-year old age groups. Men are most likely to be involved in this type of crash, with four male drunk drivers for every female drunk driver.
