New Year’s Eve Drunken Driving: Where NH Ranks

New Year’s Eve and alcohol are a deadly combination on the nation’s highways, according to national statistics. But a new ranking based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other data shows that New Hampshire has the sixth-lowest rate among the states for impaired-driving deaths.

The study from SafeWise, a website that reviews home security systems, looked at impaired driving deaths per state, but wasn’t limited to New Year’s Eve fatalities. It reported 2.01 drunken- or impaired-driving deaths per 100,000 New Hampshire residents in 2017.

The five states with the highest rates of impaired-driving deaths are Wyoming (7.59 per 100,000), South Carolina (6.22), North Dakota (6.08), New Mexico (5.74) and Alabama (5.49).

At the other end of the spectrum, the states with the lowest rates of impaired driving deaths are New Jersey (1.38 per 100,000), New York (1.48), Minnesota (1.52), Utah (1.70) and Massachusetts (1.74).

The SafeWise study also found:

• Eighty percent of the most dangerous states for impaired driving were also in the top five in 2016. Wyoming was a newcomer in 2017, replacing Montana, which fell to No. 6 with 5.33 impaired driving fatalities per capita.

• Every state in the five worst (except Wyoming) decreased its rate of drunken driving deaths year over year in 2017.
• Eighty percent of the worst states have no minimum jail time for first-time driving-under-the-influence offenders. South Carolina is the outlier with two days for a first offense.
• The majority of U.S. states require mandatory alcohol abuse assessment or treatment after a DUI conviction, but neither is required in four out of the five worst states for drunken driving deaths.
• Among the five states with the most drunken driving deaths, the average minimum fine for the first DUI conviction is $300, compared to $524 among the five states with the fewest drunk driving deaths.

To arrive at the rankings, SafeWise compared the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data with 2017 Census population estimates. Other sources used included “New York City Drunk Driving After Uber” from the City University of New York Graduate Center, Fox School of Business Research Paper, “Show Me the Way to Go Home: An Empirical Investigation of Ride Sharing and Alcohol Related Motor Vehicle Homicide” from the Fox School of Business; “Ride-Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime” from Western Carolina University; “Uber and Metropolitan Fatalities in the United States” from the American Journal of Epidemiology; “Ride-Sharing Impact on Drunk Driving” from MOLL Law Group; and “Strictest and Most Lenient States on DUI” from the personal finance website WalletHub.

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