Drinking and driving in the U.S. fell over a 12-year period, but 27 million Americans still drove under the influence in 2014, new federal data shows.
The percentage of Americans who drove under the influence dropped from 15.3 percent in 2002 to 11 percent in 2014, a federal report released Tuesday shows.
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“One of the sharpest declines occurred among people 21 to 25 years old, whose rate of driving under the influence of alcohol dropped from 29.9 percent in 2002 to 18.9 percent in 2014,” according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which wrote the report.
However, the agency was still worried about the 27.7 million Americans ages 16 or older who drove under the influence that year.
“Although it is heartening to see a downward trend in levels of driving under the influence of alcohol, it still kills thousands of people each year,” said Frances Harding, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that alcohol-related fatalities represented 31 percent of all traffic-related deaths in 2014. The agency has reported that more than 32,000 people died in traffic accidents.
The SAMHSA report is based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which is an annual survey of more than 67,500 Americans.
