While our Boston injury lawyers reported on the recent historic drop in traffic accidents last year, one-third of traffic fatalities nationwide remained the fault of drunk driving, according to new statistics just released from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Alcohol-related Massachusetts car accidents were responsible for 108 of 334 fatalities in 2009, compared to 120 of the 364 traffic fatalities in 2008. Nationwide, 10,839 motorists died in alcohol-related crashes last year, compared to 11,711 in 2008. While 33 states reported a decline, alcohol involvement in 1 in 3 fatal traffic deaths is still much too high.
“We are still losing more than 30,000 lives a year on our highways, and about a third of these involve drunk driving,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. “We will continue to work with our state partners to strictly enforce both seat belt use and anti-drunk driving laws across this nation, every day and every night.”
As we reported earlier this month on our Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog, new data shows that eight percent of all motorists — or some 17 million drivers — have driven drunk in the last year, despite the fact that 80 percent say drunk driving is a major threat to the safety of their family.
Organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving are vowing to redouble efforts to prevent the kind of senseless tragedy that results from drunk driving accidents in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
The states with the highest percentage of drunk driving accidents last year included Connecticut (44 percent), Hawaii (48 percent), Kansas (40 percent), Rhode Island (40 percent), South Carolina (42 percent), South Dakota (40 percent) and Washington (42 percent).
If you or a loved one is seriously injured or killed in a drunk driving accident in Massachusetts, contact Boston Injury Attorney Jeffrey S. Glassman for a free and confidential appointment to discuss your rights. Call 877-617-5333.