Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of an excess amount of alcohol. A person who engages in binge drinking can suffer from a number of consequences, including not surprisingly, drunk driving accidents. A new study has found that binge drinking among Americans has fallen sharply in terms of frequency. Despite the drop in frequency, however, when people do decide to binge drink they are consuming more drinks than ever before.
According to the research, the frequency at which Americans drink excessively has fallen. The research by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2011 and 2017, the number of Americans admitting that they drank excessively during a single session fell from 18.9 percent to 18 percent. However, when it came to the number of drinks consumed at a binge session, there was a sharp increase. Between 2011 and 2017, the number of drinks annually consumed by adults who reported drinking excessively during a single session jumped significantly from 472 in 2011 to 529 in 2017. So, while the number of times that Americans drink excessively has dropped, the intensity of these sessions has increased sharply.
Interestingly enough, the increase in the number of drinks consumed in a single session increased the highest in the 35 and over age group. While it is commonly believed that younger Americans, especially college students, are the age group that binge drinks the most, that doesn’t seem to be the case. If anything, younger college-aged Americans are actually consuming less alcohol during a single binge. The number of drinks consumed annually by college students who admitted to binge drinking, fell from 619 drinks a year in 2011 to 545 by 2017. Some statistics have remained the same however, over the years. Males are still much likelier to report binge drinking, compared to females.
Binge drinking is dangerous because it encourages the kind of erratic behaviors that places a person at serious risk of an accident. A person who has been binge drinking is at a greater risk of engaging in reckless behavior that increases their risk of serious consequences not only to themselves but to others around them as well. Binge drinking can also lead to the consumption of opioids and drugs, and the combination of alcohol and drugs can be fatal.
In Georgia, a person who is driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% is guilty of a DUI (driving under the influence). As little as two alcoholic drinks can cause a person of average size to reach this limit. When a person binge drinks, they can easily have a blood alcohol level of .15 percent, well over the DUI limit. And if this person decides to drive after drinking this much, the chances that they will end up causing a drunk driving accident is extremely high. Accidents caused by binge drinkers are also the most serious types of alcohol-related car accidents as they usually involve exceedingly high speeds, or head-on collisions cause by a drunk motorist driving on the wrong side of the road.
The Atlanta car accident lawyers at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers represent persons injured as a result of drunk driving accidents in the metro Atlanta region and across Georgia. If your loved one has been injured as a result of a car accident, talk to a lawyer at our firm, and schedule a free evaluation of your case.