TrafficDeaths1993-2002

FATALITIES IN MOTOR VEHICLE TRAFFIC CRASHES, including pedestrians

TOTAL FATALITIES, ALCOHOL RELATED FATALITIES, AND

FATALITY RATES PER 100 MILLION VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED

U.S. Government's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 1993-2009

Year	Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) (x 1,000.000)	Total Fatalities	Total Fatality Rate per 100 Million VMT	Alcohol Related Fatalities	Alcohol Related Fatality Rate per 100 Million VMT
1993	2,296,378	40,150	1.75	17,908	0.78
1994	2,357,588	40,716	1.73	17,308	0.73
1995	2,422,696	41,817	1.73	17,732	0.73
1996	2,485,848	42,065	1.69	17,749	0.71
1997	2,561,695	42,013	1.64	16,711	0.65
1998	2,631,522	41,501	1.58	16,673	0.63
1999	2,691,056	41,717	1.55	16,572	0.62
2000	2,749,803	41,945	1.53	17,380	0.63
2001	2,778,338	42,196	1.52	17,400	0.63
2002	2,829,645	42,815	1.51	17,419	0.62
2003	2,880,000 rounded-off	42,643 or 42,884	1.48	17,013 or 17,105	0.59
2004	2,962,513	42,636	1.44	16,694	0.56
2005	2,964,381	43,510	1.47	17,590	0.59
			[Reminder: The numbers on this chart are all official government statistics]	[Note sudden drop in 2006 and the explanation below]	[Note sudden drop in 2006 and the explanation below]
2006	3,014,116	42,708	1.42	13491	0.45
2007	3,029,822	41,059	1.36	13,041	0.43
2008	2,925,503	37,261	1.26	11,711	0.40
2009	2,979,321 [translated, this means we drive 2,979,321,000,000 miles each year]	33,808	1.13 [translated, this means there is one death for every 88,500,000 miles traveled]	10,839	0.37 [translated, this means there is one death for every 270,000,000 miles traveled]

Note: Alcohol related fatalities are obtained using the New Methodology (Multiple Imputation). Source: NHTSA statistics branch FARS. All info above is official government info, except that which is in brackets [ ].

Because of our challenge to their statistics, in 2006 they started reporting 'alcohol-impaired' fatalities instead of the vague 'alcohol-related' numbers. Their numbers still are only an estimate and include hundreds of people not verified to have been impaired or necessarily even drinking at all. And they still use the Multiple Imputation method of guessing who might have been drunk when no police data is available on a fatal crash.
In 2006, of the approximately 13,000 killed, 10,800 deaths were the drunk driver, his willing passenger or drunk pedestrians. About 2,200 were innocent victims.

An example of MADD scare tactics: They tried to alarm the public over the "disturbing" increase in drunk driving deaths for 2002, which is 1/10th of 1% more than in 2001.

2002 is when they started using their new method of calculating called "The New Methodology." According to the NHTSA: The New Methodology results in figures 1 or 2% higher than the "Old Methodology".

In essence, they changed their computing methods, which raised the numbers and then were alarmed that the figures were higher. FYI: according to the government, FARS is not pronounced "FARCE".

In 2003, the NHTSA worked with MADD by releasing "alarmingly" high numbers first and then revising them downward later after all states had passed the .08 law.

Even so, the more relevant number is deaths per Vehicle Mile Traveled (VMT), which continued to declined each year in both categories until 2005, and again in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Another related quote, not publicized because it does not promote the anti-alcohol agenda:
"In recent years, passenger car fatalities have been trending downward--the annual rise in overall passenger vehicle fatalities is due to fatal motorcycle and light truck crashes." NCSA (National Center for Statistics and Analysis), March, 2004.

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.---John Kenneth Galbraith