DUI Statistics in California

author by Randy Collins on Jul. 28, 2011

Criminal DUI-DWI Government  State and Local 

Summary: Government statistics on California DUI Patterns

Government statistics from recent years can provide you with a rough estimate of who is the most susceptible to a DUI arrest, and what DUI patterns are relevant to you. California is one of the states with the highest number of DUI arrests per 10,000 people alongside others states such as Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina. California is actually the state with the 2nd highest number of DUI arrests with approximately 200,000 arrests per year. 2008 statistics showed that 3,434 people in California were killed in traffic accidents and of those numbers, 1,355 were fatalities directly caused by drivers impaired by alcohol and/or drugs. Drivers aged 21 to 24 make up the highest percentage of DUI offenders with the median age falling at 30 years old (less than 1% of DUI offenders are juveniles, meaning under the age of 18. Males make up 80.2% of DUI arrests and drivers of Hispanic race and/or ethnicity make up 45% (with whites taking second place in highest susceptibility).

Recent DUI arrests have decreased 45% in California ever since the enactment of California Vehicle Code laws in 1990 (today refers to California Vehicle Code 23152) that rendered it illegal to drive with  a Blood Alcohol Level of 0.08%. Statistics show that the median BAC of DUI offenders in California in 2006 and 2007 was 0.15% and drivers with high BAC levels (of 0.15% or higher) caused more than 50% of all alcohol-related traffic fatalities. Furthermore, drivers arrested with BAC contents of 0.08% or higher involved in traffic accidents were eight times more likely to have had committed prior DUI offense than those drivers involved in traffic accidents without any alcohol impairment .Another interesting result of research has shown that three-fourths of convicted DUI drivers are alcoholics or frequent heavy drinkers. In 2008, all 50 states of the United States, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, had a 0.08% limit DUI law in action. Comparing the United States to Europe shows driving laws enforce lower BAC contents (with Germany enforcing an 0.05% BAC)and the United Kingdom (and Australia) have far less alcohol-related traffic fatalities. In fact, in direct relation to California statistics, alcohol-related fatalities in the UK were 12% of all fatal accidents compared to 22% here in California.

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