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Drunk Driving Statistics in California

How Prevalent is Drinking and Driving in the State

According to the 2019 Annual Report of the California DUI Management Information System, the Driving Under the Influence (DUI) arrest rate per 100,000 licensed drivers in the state was 458 down from 491 in 2016. In 2017 there were 123,548 people arrested for driving under the influence and 4,944 arrested for Felony drunk driving throughout California. The vast majority of drunk driving arrests are charged with misdemeanor offenses. For 2017, the total number of misdemeanor DUI arrests was 118,604 down from 124,868 the previous year.

 

While numbers were not available for total drunk driving convictions in 2017, there were 98,430 DUI convictions in 2016 resulting in a conviction rate of 72.6%. The number of alcohol-involved crash fatalities for 2017 was 1,294 which was 33.1 percent of the total crash fatalities in the state for the year. Additionally, there were 26,967 alcohol-involved crash injuries which represented 9.7 percent of the total crash injuries for the year.

While there was a decrease of 5.0 percent in 2017, driving under the influence is still a widespread event and one of the most common criminal offenses charged across the country. Males were vastly more likely to be arrested for DUI making up 77.3 percent of the total arrests. However, the percentage of females arrested for drunk driving has risen significantly over the past 30 years.

Driving while impaired by drugs was also a significant problem in the state. As noted in the report there were 829 drug-involved crash fatalities in 2017, representing 21.2 percent of the total crash fatalities. Additionally, there were 2,982 drug-involved crash injuries making up just over 1 percent of the total crash injuries.