{"chart":{"slug":"alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths","title":"What share of U.S. traffic deaths involve an alcohol-impaired driver?","takeaway":"In 2024, 30% of U.S. traffic deaths were in crashes where a driver had a blood alcohol level of .08 or more, the legal limit in every state but Utah (.05). The share fell from 48% in 1982 to about 30% by the late 1990s. Many drivers in fatal crashes aren't tested, so NHTSA estimates the missing levels statistically; these are its estimates.","topic":"Road safety","chart_type":"line","ranking":false,"x_label":"Year","y_label":"Percent of traffic deaths","unit":"percent","points_count":43,"source":{"name":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)","url":"https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2024-12-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:40.290Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths/embed","credit":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths)","credit_html":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"1982","value":48.0},{"label":"1983","value":47.1},{"label":"1984","value":44.4},{"label":"1985","value":41.4},{"label":"1986","value":42.4},{"label":"1987","value":40.6},{"label":"1988","value":39.5},{"label":"1989","value":38.4},{"label":"1990","value":39.7},{"label":"1991","value":38.1},{"label":"1992","value":35.8},{"label":"1993","value":34.2},{"label":"1994","value":32.9},{"label":"1995","value":32.2},{"label":"1996","value":32.0},{"label":"1997","value":30.4},{"label":"1998","value":30.2},{"label":"1999","value":30.1},{"label":"2000","value":31.8},{"label":"2001","value":31.5},{"label":"2002","value":31.3},{"label":"2003","value":30.5},{"label":"2004","value":30.6},{"label":"2005","value":31.2},{"label":"2006","value":31.6},{"label":"2007","value":31.6},{"label":"2008","value":31.3},{"label":"2009","value":31.8},{"label":"2010","value":30.7},{"label":"2011","value":30.4},{"label":"2012","value":30.6},{"label":"2013","value":30.7},{"label":"2014","value":30.4},{"label":"2015","value":29.0},{"label":"2016","value":29.0},{"label":"2017","value":29.0},{"label":"2018","value":29.1},{"label":"2019","value":28.0},{"label":"2020","value":30.1},{"label":"2021","value":31.5},{"label":"2022","value":31.5},{"label":"2023","value":30.2},{"label":"2024","value":30.3}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/alcohol-impaired-traffic-deaths)"}