{"id":15204,"date":"2025-08-05T15:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/?p=15204"},"modified":"2025-07-29T21:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:15:49","slug":"new-study-investigates-pandemic-spike-in-impaired-driving-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/new-study-investigates-pandemic-spike-in-impaired-driving-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"New study investigates pandemic spike in impaired-driving deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

A national mental health crisis and reductions in policing may have helped fuel an increase in impaired-driving deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than relaxed alcohol policies, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety<\/a> has shown.<\/p>\n

In 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 28% of passenger-vehicle drivers killed in crashes had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or more, the legal limit in most states. In 2020 that proportion increased to 30% and remained elevated through 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreases in self-reported depressive episodes and suicide plans and reductions in full-time law enforcement personnel were both associated with rises in impaired-driver deaths,\u201d the study found.<\/p>\n

A one-point increase in the percentage of adults reporting a major depressive episode over the past year and a half-point increase in the percentage who reported making suicide plans were associated with 304 and 322 additional impaired-driver deaths per year, respectively, the researchers found.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there was a reduction in policing around the same time, which researchers said may have reduced any hesitation that drinkers had about getting behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

An average loss of five full-time law enforcement officers per 100,000 residents nationwide over 2018-22 was associated with an annual increase of about 214 more impaired-driver deaths.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the report found the number of states that allowed bars and restaurants to make home deliveries of alcohol rose from 21 to 37 between January and December of 2020, and the number allowing such establishments to sell alcohol to go increased from 21 states to 45.<\/p>\n

Home-delivery policies were associated with around 304 additional impaired-driver deaths per year in the states that adopted them. In contrast, researchers said for reasons that remain unclear, to-go policies were associated with about 450 fewer deaths per year in states with those rules in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese results reinforce the need for a Safe System approach that incorporates multiple measures to combat impaired driving,\u201d said IIHS President David Harkey. \u201cSobriety checks and other visible policing efforts can only happen if we have enough officers. We should also boost programs that include treatment for substance abuse and mental health disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A national mental health crisis and reductions in policing may have helped fuel an increase in impaired-driving deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than relaxed alcohol policies, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has shown. In 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 28% of passenger-vehicle drivers killed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":15205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}