Drunk Driving Increased by Nearly 24 Percent in 2021, According to AAA

Police officers check drivers at a sobriety checkpoint in Escondido, Calif., in 2011.

The American Automobile Association has released its annual Traffic Safety Culture Index, and the results aren’t great: In every category, Americans drove more dangerously in 2021 compared to the year prior. And the biggest rise in risky activity came in the form of drunk driving.

Researchers and journalists have shed a lot of digital ink on the massive increase in fatalities on U.S. roads in 2021. At least 42,915 people lost their lives in traffic collisions that year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—a 16 year high. While heavier vehicles with poor visibility are partially to blame (especially in vehicle vs. pedestrian collisions), factors like speeding, lack of seat belt, distracted or drowsy driving and inebriated driving all played a pivotal roll.

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The AAA study, which the agency shared with Jalopnik, showed a 23.7-percent increase in the number of people “admitting to getting behind the wheel after drinking enough that they felt they were over the legal limit.” And that’s just the respondents who knew they were too drunk to drive: this 24-percent increase doesn’t include those who may have been unaware of the extent of their inebriation when they drove.