It should be no surprise to anyone in Georgia that drinking alcohol and then driving a car or other vehicle is dangerous. This behavior puts innocent people at risk as a person’s ability to safely operate a vehicle, react appropriately in emergency situations and follow traffic signals and signs is diminished when under the influence of alcohol. Unfortunately, many people refuse to listen to the facts and to common sense and choose to drive drunk.
Records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that drunk driving deaths in Georgia increased to 375 in 2018, up from 356. In 2014, the state recorded 279 fatalities in drunk driving accidents making the 2018 number even more alarming. In Haralson County, the picture is no better.
In 2014, there were no drunk driving deaths in Haralson County. However, in the subsequent four years, 11 people were killed in accidents in which alcohol was a contributing factor. Overall traffic deaths in the county also increased during those five years, reaching a high of nine in 2018. Of those nine deaths, four occurred in drunk driving accidents. Drunk driving deaths accounted for more than 44% of the county’s traffic fatalities that year, 40% in 2017 and 57% in 2015. Statewide, alcohol was a factor in between 23% and 25% of all deaths every year between 2014 and 2018.
If you would like to learn more about how to protect yourself and your family after an accident caused by a drunk driver happens, please feel free to visit the crash assistance and compensation page of our Georgia motor vehicle accident and personal injury website.
