Most Texans know that driving under the influence of alcohol is illegal, but what may be surprising to know is that there are many factors that go into the rate of collisions based on the most recent data. Unfortunately certain areas experience more accidents than others and disproportionate numbers of certain age groups are the primary contributors to alcohol impaired collisions in Texas. Understanding the data can help make avoiding a collision easier in some respects and shed light on potential factors that lead to crashes.
The Data
Our most recent set of statistics measures the number of rural area alcohol impaired crashes to that or urban area crashes, against the whole of the population statewide. While this doesn’t answer all the questions as to why so many people choose to drive impaired and why these crashes happen, it does tell us who is doing more of the impaired driving in each situation
Rural Area Collisions
One thing we notice immediately when looking at the most recent data is that rural drivers make up a slightly higher number of the total population of alcohol related collision drivers in the state as compared to urban drivers. While the difference is minimal this does point to the fact that there are more alcohol influenced accidents in less heavily trafficked and less populated rural areas.
While we can’t possibly know every factor related to these types of DUI crashes, what we can see purely based on the numbers is that certain age groups in rural areas contribute to more crashes than others and that compared to urban drivers there are some noticeable differences in which groups contribute to crashes the most.
The percentages show that among rural drivers as compared to urban drivers, the under 21 age group and those over 65 contribute roughly the same number of accidents in either rural or urban settings.
However, people in the age groups that range from 46 to 60 are responsible for significantly more crashes in rural areas than in urban areas.
Urban Area Collisions
Despite generally being more densely populated, we actually see fewer urban alcohol related collisions as compared to rural in the most recent data, though the difference is not significant.
There are two key noticeable differences about urban area collisions that do stand out in the data. First, the age groups that range from 21 to 40 have significantly higher rates of alcohol related collisions in urban areas as compared to rural.
Second, urban areas have fewer drivers 75 and over involved in crashes, but this is offset by the fact that urban data shows drivers of unknown status commit some accidents whereas there is no data for rural areas.
Conclusions
What we see when we look at the data across the whole state is that while there are some statistical differences in which age groups cause the most alcohol related accidents, when we look at the overall numbers, a large majority of accidents are caused by people under the age of forty, at over 60% of the statewide accidents. This includes over 36% of accidents that are committed by people under the age of 30.
It’s important to always avoid driving while under the influence of alcohol and to use a taxi or rideshare service if you have been drinking.
If you are involved in an accident with a drunk driver, don’t hesitate to contact a personal injury attorney so that you can get the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
