If you are like a lot of people in Washington State, you might assume that all of the awareness campaigns and strong laws concerning drunk driving have made significant and positive impacts in the community. That may be true, but the fact of the matter is that drunk drivers continue to plague the region and cause ongoing and unnecessary tragedies for innocent people and families.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington State’s rate of drunk driving deaths in 2017 exceeded that of the national average. That year, the country saw 29% of all traffic fatalities attributed to alcohol. In Washington, 32% of all accident fatalities were due to drunk drivers. That was a higher percentage than the state saw in the previous three years.
The picture in Kent and Pierce Counties is even worse. In 2017, drunk driving deaths accounted for 37% of all accident fatalities in both counties. In King County, 41 out of 111 vehicular deaths were due to alcohol and in Pierce County, drunk drivers claimed the lives of 21 out of 57 people. For King County, this was a significant jump from the previous year when drunk drivers were responsible for 25% of the county’s total vehicular deaths.
If you would like to learn more about the true dangers of drunk driving and the methods available to seek assistance after you or a loved one has been involved in a crash caused by an impaired driver, please feel free to visit the compensation page of our Washington State accident and personal injury website.