Late last week the Minnesota Department of Public Safety released its annual report on drunk driving in the state. The report dives deep into the issue of drunk driving in Minnesota, and it explores how the numbers stack up to years past. Today, we take a closer look at some of the key findings of the report. If you’d like to view the full 81-page report for yourself, click here.
Drunk Driving in Minnesota
We’ll start with some of the more straightforward findings from the report:
- 137 of the 411 people (33 percent) who died on Minnesota roads in 2015 were killed in alcohol-related crashes.
- 2,203 people suffered injuries in alcohol-related crashes.
- There were 25,027 DUI arrests in Minnesota in 2015. That’s an average of 69 a day, or one DUI arrest every 20 minutes.
- The average BAC for someone arrested for DUI in Minnesota is 0.16, and the average BAC for someone who was involved in a fatal alcohol-related crash was 0.19.
- Overall, 1 in 7 Minnesotans has a DUI on their record, and those numbers are even higher in some counties. In Mahnomen County, 1 in 4 people have a DUI on their record, while 1 in 6 have DUIs in both Mille Lacs and in Cass County.
- 1,328 drivers have 10 or more DWIs on their record. There is one person out there who has 26.
Although those numbers seem high and are certainly concerning, there’s room for optimism. The total number of DUI arrests in Minnesota have dropped each of the last 10 years. Back in 2006, a total of 42,007 Minnesotans were arrested for drunk driving.
Conviction and Gender Statistics
Interestingly, the statistics also delve into the conviction rates per district. Across the districts, the DUI conviction rate was 72.1 percent in 2015, but that number fluctuated greatly by location. In the Murray and Pipestone counties, conviction rates sat at a meager 46.7 and 46.5 percent respectively. Conversely, the conviction rates were very high in Cook County (96 percent) in Wilkin (93 percent) and in Watonwan (90 percent). For reference, Districts 2 and 4, which are composed of Ramsey County and Hennepin County, had conviction rates of 68.4 percent and 66.3 percent.
As for gender and age statistics, it’s no surprise that males account for the majority of DUIs in Minnesota. According to the statistics, of the 22,790 DUI arrests that involved a documented gender, men made up 16,422 of those arrests. More than half of those arrested for DUI in Minnesota last year were between the ages of 20 and 34.
For more information about the statistics, or to see how your district fared, click here to see the full report.
