Georgia Injury Law Blog
Alcohol- related car accident death numbers have increased significantly even as the number of arrests have dropped.
In 2022, according to figures released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, close to 13,500 people died in auto accidents caused by an impaired driver. That was almost the same as the numbers in 2021, but a was 33% higher than in 2019. The numbers in 2022 were the highest on record since 2006.
During the same period of time, there was a significant drop in the number of arrests made for DUI around the country. In 2019, police made close to a million arrests for DUI around the US while that number dropped to just 788,000 arrests in 2022. During the pandemic, police departments across the country suffered staffing shortages which made it harder for them to enforce DUI laws and arrest violators.