It describes how the costs and savings estimates were calculated and gives the references citations. The Methods pages should always accompany the U.S. and state fact sheets. The State Cost Fact Sheet User's Guide goes into more detail about state-level estimates and describes how they can be used to educate the public about the costs of impaired driving. The cost estimates give an index of the magnitude of the impaired driving problem, and help establish how high a priority impaired driving should be compared to the overall costs of other types of problems. They identify types of alcohol-related crashes that merit immediate attention and project net savings from implementing various impaired driving countermeasures.
Most public libraries can provide Internet access.
An estimated total of 1,049,900 crashes in the United States involved alcohol. These crashes killed 15,935 people and injured an estimated 821,000 more. Alcohol-related crashes are deadlier and more serious than other crashes. The United States already has many important impaired driving laws. However, a number of additional strategies can be used to mitigate the harm from impaired driving.