In 2021, 13,384 people were killed by drunk drivers in the United States—approximately one person every 39 minutes—up 14 percent over 2020, according to the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Association data.
Texas had the highest rate of drunk driving deaths in the country in 2021, with 1,906 deaths, followed by California, with 1,370 deaths, and Florida, with 1,019 (pdf).
Over the same period, 42 percent of all traffic fatalities in Texas involved at least one driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) above the state’s threshold of .08 g/dl or higher. The state also saw the biggest increase in the number of lives lost in drunk driving crashes in 2021, with 373 additional deaths over the prior year….