Update: repeat DWI offenders involvement in fatal crashes in 2010.
OBJECTIVE
This analysis is an update of a Traffic Tech published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in March 1992. Drivers with prior driving-while-intoxicated (DWI) convictions are overrepresented in fatal crashes and the relative risk of fatal crash involvement is greater for these repeat DWI offenders.


METHODS
Although it is estimated that 2.1 percent of licensed drivers had a prior arrest for DWI within the past 3 years in 2010, 8.0 percent of intoxicated drivers (blood alcohol concentration [BAC] ≥ 0.08 g/dL) involved in fatal crashes had at least one prior DWI conviction in the past 3 years during that same year.


RESULTS
Drivers with prior DWI convictions are overrepresented in fatal crashes by a factor of 1.62 or are 62 percent more likely to be in a fatal crash. Similarly, drivers with prior DWI convictions are also overrepresented as drinking drivers in fatal crashes: those with low BACs (0.01-0.07) by a factor of 2.38 and those with high BACs (0.08+) by a factor of 3.81.


CONCLUSIONS
Though repeat DWI offenders are at a substantially higher risk of fatal crash involvement, the vast majority of intoxicated drivers in fatal crashes do not have a DWI conviction in the past 3 years (11 out of 12) according to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System records for the year 2010.
a Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation , Calverton , Maryland.
James C
JC
Fell
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000097:blood; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016208:Databases, Factual; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D000431:Ethanol