Texas Is Near the Top of the Worst List for DUIs

The good news is we've seen some improvement, but according to a recent report on BackgroundChecks.org, Texas is number 12 overall in a ranking of states with the worst DUI problems.

This brings up many questions, but at the top of the list has to be: What is going on, and why?

One of the numbers that puts us squarely in this position seems to be the number of DUI arrests in Texas. We come in second to California (141,458), with 64,971 DUI arrests in Texas last year.

Another big piece of the equation is the DUI death rate. Here in Texas, it's 4.75. Wyoming holds the highest death rate at 9.56. The state with the lowest death rate is New Jersey at 1.24.

While it's hard to conjecture about why, it would seem that states with more rural miles might rank similarly. It's true that Wyoming, North and South Dakota and Montana hold the top (worst) spots on this ranking. New York (best), New Jersey and Massachusetts all did well, but so did Utah. Now, I've driven through Utah and thought it was pretty rural, so I had to look up a map about that. Surprisingly, Utah is not all that rural comparatively -- and neither is Texas!

Overall, this research shows that the number of DUIs is increasing. In 2015, more than 10,000 people were killed and more than 200,000 injured in DUI-related accidents.

Regardless of how we weigh and measure this, one thing is clear: More needs to be done. What do you think could make a difference and help improve Texas' DUI-related accidents?