A new study published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows that self-reported depressive episodes and suicide plans were a significant contributor to the rise in impaired driving deaths between 2020 and 2022. You may only know the IIHS for its important work conducting crash tests, but its ultimate goal is making roads and vehicles safer for everyone, so it also conducts studies like this one. This study required IIHS researchers to analyze data surrounding the deaths of passenger vehicle drivers with high blood alcohol contents at or above 0.08%, and deaths of passenger vehicle drivers in single-vehicle nighttime crashes for all age groups, and separately for drivers ages 16-20.
Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 28% of passenger-vehicle drivers killed in crashes had BACs of 0.08% or more, which is the maximum legal limit in most states. That number increased to 30% in 2020, and remained elevated through 2022, data shows. While other factors are included as contributors, the IIHS found that the effect of the mental health crisis incited by the pandemic was more pronounced than other factors, contributing to more impaired-driver deaths per year.
Percentage of adults reporting past-year suicide plans was a significant predictor of driver deaths
The IIHS report notes that the rise in impaired driving was related to an increase in alcohol consumption that occurred during the first year-and-five-months of the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey conducted in May of 2020 showed that 60% of adults reported that they had been drinking more since the onset of the pandemic, and alcohol sales statistics reflect the increase from numbers recorded between March 2020 and August 2021 compared to the same range from 2017 to 2019, too. It’s understood that poor mental health factors likely contributed to those increases in alcohol consumption during the earlier times of the pandemic.
Researchers found that there was a one-point increase in the percentage of adults reporting major depressive episodes over the prior year and a half-point increase in the percentage of people who reported making suicide plans. These increases, researchers found, contributed to 304 and 322 additional impaired-driver deaths per year in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Taking a mental health-oriented approach to addressing impaired driving has the most potential benefits
The IIHS acknowledges that efforts to bring a mental health-oriented approach to addressing impaired driving are relatively rare, but that they are effective. Angela Eichelberger, a senior research scientist at the IIHS and the author of this study, said “the mental health dimension of the impaired-driving problem receives comparatively little attention.”
Designated DUI courts are one resource that uses a mental health-first approach; they are staffed by prosecutors and judges who specialize in driving-while-intoxicated cases, and have been shown to reduce repeat offenses. The tactics they use are not fear tactics and force, but incorporating counseling, support groups, and mental health programs with intense supervision.
According to the National Treatment Court Resource Center or NTCRC, the goal of the DWI/DUI court is to protect public safety while addressing the root causes of recidivist impaired driving. As it turns out, a lot of the root causes lie behind mental health crises.
Other factors associated with crashes include alcohol delivery and decreased policing
Some other factors are considered in this study, including the effects felt in states that allowed bars and restaurants to make home deliveries of alcohol, the effects felt in places that permitted to-go cocktails, and the effects of reduced policing.
The findings surrounding the effects of shifting alcohol policies are quite strange; home delivery of alcohol was associated with 304 additional impaired driver deaths per year in states that adopted it, but to-go policies were associated with about 450 fewer deaths per year in states that adopted them. The study notes these two contradicting results warrant further research to understand their impact.
Policing rightfully came under scrutiny around the onset of the pandemic, as senseless police brutality and corruption led various municipalities to reduce police funding. Many departments chose to put less emphasis on proactive enforcement in the months that followed, and this study found that an average loss of five full-time law enforcement officers per 100,000 residents over 2018-2022 was associated with an annual increase of about 214 more impaired-driver deaths nationwide.
Eichelberger said, “It’s notable that the effect of the mental health crisis was more pronounced than the reduction in policing.” The conclusion of the findings states that ongoing efforts to address alcohol-impaired driving should consider adult mental health and proactive enforcement measures.
