How Stay-at-Home Orders and Government Shut Downs Affected 2020 Drunk Driving Statistics
In many places, states saw a significant reduction in drunk driving arrests, crashes, and fatalities during 2020. In July, a news article from KSDK discussed the record decrease in Missouri. According to their reporting, the Missouri Highway Patrol had seen a substantial decline in the number of DUI crashes and deaths. Still, they were on high alert for the upcoming holiday weekend.
From January through May of 2020, data from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department showed that DUI incidents had decreased by half compared to the same period the previous year. The state generally sees an average of 500 drunk driving crashes per month. According to the news site, during 2020, alcohol-related crashes were well under half.
Missouri was not the only state to see reductions. According to OPB, “impaired driving citations dropped sharply across Oregon and Washington this spring during the coronavirus pandemic.” Similar reports came in from around the country.
It is important to remember that law enforcement is still arresting people for driving under the influence and that alcohol-related traffic fatalities still happen on a regular basis. The trend, however, is positive and one which everyone hopes will continue in the future.
Popular drinking holidays such as the night before Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year’s Eve, and St. Patrick’s Day still saw devastating drunk driving statistics, but they were less than normal. Thousands of drunk driving arrests are still made, and too many lives are still lost.
Alcohol-related traffic deaths are preventable. As the world begins to find post-COVID normalcy with the eventual wide-spread availability of a vaccine, jurisdictions will once again be cracking down on impaired driving.