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Drunk driving risk factors

Alcohol concentration | Gender | Age

Alcohol concentration

Even at an Alcohol Content (AC) level as low as 0.04%, alcohol in your blood system affects driving ability and crash likelihood, according to Special Report 216, "Zero Alcohol" by the Transportation Research Board.

• The probability of a crash begins to increase significantly at 0.05 AC and climbs rapidly after about 0.08%.
• For drivers with AC's above 0.15% on weekend nights, the likelihood of being killed in a single-vehicle crash is more than 380 times higher than it is for non-drinking drivers.

Gender

Alcohol-related crashes in Wisconsin are much more likely to involve men than women.

• Among fatally injured male drivers in the year 2008, 37% of those tested had AC's of 0.08% or more and women tested for .08 or above were 29%. These numbers are taken from all of the fatalities that were tested.
• Men, ages 21-24, are the most likely drivers to be killed in a crash when their blood alcohol content is above 0.08.

Age

Male drivers ages 21-40 make up the majority of fatally injured drivers with high ACs. This group has shown only a modest decline in the 1980s in the percentage of fatally injured drivers with high ACs.

In contrast, other age groups, particularly teenagers, show substantial declines. Drivers in the 16-20 year-old group showed the biggest improvement throughout the 1980s, due largely to the 21-year-old alcohol purchase laws.

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Questions about the content of this page:
Sonya Sidky, Sonya.Sidky@dot.wi.gov
Last modified: January 21, 2011