Impaired driving continues to be an issue of concern in the United States. According to a study on safety culture conducted by the American Automobile Association (AAA) (2010), a majority of people in the United States feel that drunk driving is a threat to their personal safety. Alcohol-impaired driving has been the focus of law enforcement, government policy and public awareness campaigns for a number of years. This has resulted in declining rates of alcohol-impaired driving. Figure 1.1 outlines rates of alcohol-related fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles travelled (VMT) for the United States and North Dakota. Despite efforts to decrease impaired driving, there continues to be a proportion of the population who drive while impaired by alcohol. Although the United States has seen declining trends in alcohol-impaired driving in recent years, North Dakota, by comparison, has seen an increasing trend. This report gives a summary of the current state of alcohol-impaired driving and countermeasures in the United States and individual states, including North Dakota. (Author/publisher)
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