A few notes on drinking and driving

Andrey Kamenov, Ph.D. Probability and Statistics

How widespread is drinking and driving in the U.S.? Over 5 percent of all men questioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted driving a car at least once during the previous 30 days after they had “too much to drink.” For women the number is somewhat smaller: 2 percent. But, given the sheer number of licensed drivers in the U.S., we can still consider this to be a significant threat to the road safety.

Of course, we can only base our analysis on the respondents’ words — the official DUI arrests statistical data doesn’t provide nearly as much detail. Nevertheless, there are some pretty interesting findings we would like to share with you.

Who has the largest percentage of people who admitted to drinking and driving? It probably isn’t surprising that those are the youngest age groups. Let’s just see by how much:

First, we should take the data for people under 18 with a grain of salt. The BRFSS survey covers respondents aged 18 and older, but in many states, people under 18 can still obtain driver’s licenses.

The largest solid number is the one for the 20-24 age group. The number of men who admitted to drinking and driving in the past 30 days constitutes a staggering 10.6 percent of all licensed drivers of that age. In the same age group, the number is more than two times smaller for women.

The interesting thing is, while the number seems to decline with age, at some point (past 40 for men and past 45 for women) it starts to rise again. Of course, it never reaches the same level as in the early twenties, but the effect is still statistically significant.

What happened? We can only guess, unfortunately. The most logical (but still somewhat naive) assumption would be that this is the age when respondents’ kids get into their late teens. This possibly somewhat dulls the subconscious desire for safety.

Drinking and driving by state (percent of licensed drivers)

 

Source(s):

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About Andrey Kamenov

Andrey Kamenov, Ph.D. Probability and Statistics

Andrey Kamenov is a data scientist working for Advameg Inc. His background includes teaching statistics, stochastic processes and financial mathematics in Moscow State University and working for a hedge fund. His academic interests range from statistical data analysis to optimal stopping theory. Andrey also enjoys his hobbies of photography, reading and powerlifting.

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