(November 2, 2022) Driving on Holiday nights is always risky when it comes to intoxicated drivers on the road, but this is especially true for Halloween night. Getting seriously hurt or losing a loved one is not the spooky most people expect on this festive occasion. Unfortunately, recent statistics found that drunk drivers were involved in 44% of fatal crashes on Halloween weekend. When not fatal, accidents involving drunk drivers almost always involve severe injuries like Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), which can change the victim’s life forever. Fatal pedestrian accidents are also up on Halloween, and 23% of these accidents involved a driver or motorcyclist with a BAC of 0.08% or higher.
Spinal Cord Injury and Drunk Driving
Auto accidents are the leading cause of Spinal Cord Injury in the United States for those ages 16-30 and affect a staggering 450,000 people annually. They account for slightly less than half of all new cases of Spinal Cord Injury in the United States every year. Even more tragic is the fact that alcohol is involved 25% of the time. Additionally, half of these spinal cord injuries are complete, meaning that the victim permanently loses all feeling in the lower part of their body. Spinal cord injuries alter a person’s life forever – and the leading cause of this tragedy is an entirely preventable one. That’s scary.