I live in one of the cities listed.
Before Uber I looked to see what it would take to get from my place to the closest bar district via bus.
For context - it's a ten minute drive. Forty blocks.
It was 90 minutes, two transfers, and no way to get back after 11pm.
Pre-Uber there were a non-zero amount of times where I got stuck out with no way home because cabs just refused to come to where I was. I was still in the city - just at a random bar instead of a bar/entertainment district.
Odessa, TX has a significantly higher rate than the 2nd highest city! What is going on there!? [Credit](https://www.mtvlaw.com/75-us-cities-with-the-highest-rate-of-fatal-drunk-driving-accidents/).
People in O&G, which is everyone in that area, are 8.5x more likely to be in serious car accidents. At least that’s what H&P says. A big part of their safety messaging to their people is “Drive Safe”.
The combination of crazy long shifts (12hrs a day X 14 days), the culture in the industry, and the lack of anything productive to do in the area. Also, most workers on a rotation (2 weeks on, 2 weeks off) drive in from way out of town.
Source: born and raised in Odessa, family been in oil and gas my entire life
O&G is short for Oil and Gas.
H&P is short for Helmerich & Payne, a big drilling contractor with branches all over the world, including the US, Argentina, India, and the U.A.E.
It’s rotational tho. People come from out of town. Work two weeks straight and leave. Come back again in 2 weeks. Saves them from having to live there I guess. Not defending it.
I’ve spent time in Odessa and it’s the Wild West on the roads. Lots of trucks driving fast. I’ve driven all over Texas and had my head on a swivel in Odessa.
I lived in Texas and I've never had to swerve outside of my lane so many times in my life. They can't even keep their trucks in their own lanes when they're sober.
Are you walkable Citycels even trying!? NUMBER 1 NUMBER 1!
Na I’m kidding, I don’t live in Odessa but I have traveled there for work and I can tell you every roughneck without exception drives a Ram 2500, Silverado 2500, or F250 with huge metal grill guards. These are much higher off the ground and weigh twice as much as the Nissan Altima you find piloted by unhinged lunatics in less rural areas.
Part of it is because they're only looking at the 300 most populated cities, and California and Texas have a large share of those.
Another part is likely because many of these cities are sprawled out and you pretty much have to take a car to get anywhere. While a condensed city in, say, new England tends to be more walkable and have more reliable public transit.
It could be due to high population states with laxer alcohol laws that also have relatively spread out and suburban populations? IDK.... like, Texas and California have huge populations but I'm the other hand have way less density (overall, not counting like San Francisco or something) than a tiny but dense state like New Jersey = more people driving drunk more often, further, and faster?
Just guessing....
Yeah this has to be part of it, a lot of the cities from CA that are listed are in the inland area outside of LA county. I live in one of the cities towards the top of the chart and everything is spread out so you gotta travel by car everywhere.
A lot of folks will just drive themselves to the bar instead of ubering. I have to tell all my friends who visit to be careful at stop lights and intersections because people will blow through them all of the time. You really gotta be aware of your surroundings on the road here
I live in Ontario and work in construction throughout San Bernardino, riverside, and imperial county which involves a toooon of driving and yea I’ve seen some crazy shit
Something's fishy about that infographic.
Nothing in New Mexico?
Nothing in South Dakota?
Two States with VERY high numbers of drunk drivers and drunk driving deaths.
Same thing I was wondering! I once heard a statistic: *** Don't quote me*** that 2 out of 5 drivers on the road are impaired from some sort of substance at any time of the day driving in Vegas.
Why so many Texas and California states, is it due to lack of mass transit? I ask because on the reverse end it would explain why New York City , Los Angeles, Chicago and major cities in New Jersey aren’t on this list.
I’ve been a paramedic in a CA city for a little over a year. I’ve been dispatched to about 50 MVAs. About 30 of them have involved at least 1 driver that was clearly intoxicated. CHP and the local PD let the intoxicated driver leave the scene in all cases except 3. The police here couldn’t care less, even in cases of injured victims.
Woohoo Corona CA native lol
It’s funny with 20 years of looking the other way with marijuana that there are so many California cities up there. Still drinking and killing people.
It's kind of disingenuous to have these broken down into cities within a singular metro area. Like shit, a lot of those California cities are all adjacent to Los Angeles.
I’m from Odessa and not surprised at all. Lots of money in the area and absolutely nothing to do but drink. Tons of men with egos. Since it’s an oilfield town, it’s boom or bust meaning businesses/the city are hesitant to fund any long term entertainment. It’s brutal.
Probably because in Vegas most people are either driving in bumper to bumper slow traffic or in sparsely populated empty roads and people go out in groups and take taxis and Ubers.
A bunch of Ohio cities, No PA cities….is it the hills in PA that help? Or the flatlands in ohio that hinder? Or the liquor sales laws in the commonwealth? Being from Pittsburgh, this is interesting to me.,.
Glendale AZ does not surprise me… NFL stadium, hockey stadium used to be there (now it’s mainly for concerts) , casino, night life clubs/bars, Top Golf, terrible public transportation options and Ubers/lyfts get pretty expensive (clearly nothing compared to a DUI, but drunks don’t think that far ahead)
I’m from the DFW region. This makes total sense, driving around here is a nightmare due to the sprawl and endless suburbs, along with the lack of public transit. It’s cheaper for people to drive home themselves instead of paying for a Lyft or Uber, so they drive drunk… and get into many accidents. I’ve seen it for myself.
Nothing from WI?
Only three Wisconsin cities in the top 300 in population.
You'd think Milwaukee or Madison would at least show up. Even Knoxville is on here and it's not a big place
They probably show up, as they meet the criteria for city size -- they just don't show up in the top 75 by rate.
True, me bo good at statistics
That explains it.
Not really. It’s by fatality *rates*. Edit: yes really. Rates in the top 300 cities.
>The study compared the number of fatal drunk driving accidents per 100,000 people in the 300 largest cities in the U.S.
Thank you for correcting. Edited my comment.
"Not really" "Yes really" Made me chuckle lol
Sconnies are professional drinkers threw and threw.
And Green Bay is the number 1 drunkest city.
We have our own separate chart.
We are professionals. We can drive drunk safely.
Came to applaud my home state on our skill.
I was going to say the same thing. The drunkest state has to have the drunkest drivers. I've seen drunk driving at 2pm on a Tuesday.
That's the best time to do it
I think we’ve just gotten really good at drunk driving, it’s a learned skill
That was my first thought. Guess we’re doing something right
They were too drunk to find their cars.
DUI's in Wisconsin are basically a moving violation lol
The most conspicuous absences are cities with good public transit.
That's a great point.
I live in one of the cities listed. Before Uber I looked to see what it would take to get from my place to the closest bar district via bus. For context - it's a ten minute drive. Forty blocks. It was 90 minutes, two transfers, and no way to get back after 11pm. Pre-Uber there were a non-zero amount of times where I got stuck out with no way home because cabs just refused to come to where I was. I was still in the city - just at a random bar instead of a bar/entertainment district.
Odessa, TX has a significantly higher rate than the 2nd highest city! What is going on there!? [Credit](https://www.mtvlaw.com/75-us-cities-with-the-highest-rate-of-fatal-drunk-driving-accidents/).
People in O&G, which is everyone in that area, are 8.5x more likely to be in serious car accidents. At least that’s what H&P says. A big part of their safety messaging to their people is “Drive Safe”. The combination of crazy long shifts (12hrs a day X 14 days), the culture in the industry, and the lack of anything productive to do in the area. Also, most workers on a rotation (2 weeks on, 2 weeks off) drive in from way out of town. Source: born and raised in Odessa, family been in oil and gas my entire life
What does O&G and H&P mean?
O&G is short for Oil and Gas. H&P is short for Helmerich & Payne, a big drilling contractor with branches all over the world, including the US, Argentina, India, and the U.A.E.
12 hours a day for 14 days straight is absolutely insane.
It’s rotational tho. People come from out of town. Work two weeks straight and leave. Come back again in 2 weeks. Saves them from having to live there I guess. Not defending it.
No worse than 12 hrs ,6 on-1off for 6 months.
I’ve spent time in Odessa and it’s the Wild West on the roads. Lots of trucks driving fast. I’ve driven all over Texas and had my head on a swivel in Odessa.
Think about who goes to work in those type of jobs. Their IQ isn’t that high.
Odessa...there's really nothing to do besides work and drink. Midland (next door) is a little cleaner but the same issue.
Well at least there's Boobie Miles
I lived in Texas and I've never had to swerve outside of my lane so many times in my life. They can't even keep their trucks in their own lanes when they're sober.
It's always SO terrifying when that happens. Trust no one.
Are you walkable Citycels even trying!? NUMBER 1 NUMBER 1! Na I’m kidding, I don’t live in Odessa but I have traveled there for work and I can tell you every roughneck without exception drives a Ram 2500, Silverado 2500, or F250 with huge metal grill guards. These are much higher off the ground and weigh twice as much as the Nissan Altima you find piloted by unhinged lunatics in less rural areas.
Looking at the map has me suspicious that tons of states did not contribute to the data set. CA, TX, CO make up like half the cities listed
It's legitimately a serious problem in Texas.
Can confirm, I live in Midland. At least for a few more months then goodbye Texas.
Part of it is because they're only looking at the 300 most populated cities, and California and Texas have a large share of those. Another part is likely because many of these cities are sprawled out and you pretty much have to take a car to get anywhere. While a condensed city in, say, new England tends to be more walkable and have more reliable public transit.
Sure but it’s hard to believe IL, NV, VA don’t have any contenders
It could be due to high population states with laxer alcohol laws that also have relatively spread out and suburban populations? IDK.... like, Texas and California have huge populations but I'm the other hand have way less density (overall, not counting like San Francisco or something) than a tiny but dense state like New Jersey = more people driving drunk more often, further, and faster? Just guessing....
Yeah this has to be part of it, a lot of the cities from CA that are listed are in the inland area outside of LA county. I live in one of the cities towards the top of the chart and everything is spread out so you gotta travel by car everywhere. A lot of folks will just drive themselves to the bar instead of ubering. I have to tell all my friends who visit to be careful at stop lights and intersections because people will blow through them all of the time. You really gotta be aware of your surroundings on the road here
Malt the California ones are from the same county pretty much too. Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are not on the list.
WA too
Riverside County is a hotspot. Probably because most of those towns like Corona and Riverside are commuter towns
The entire inland empire has 6 of the top 25. And yeah lack of public transportation and car centric development is a huge reason why.
Along with wide roads with high speed limits.
Also people drive like straight dog shit here. As if everyone has multiple lives.
There is public transportation… just no one uses them. I was shocked how empty the streets and buses were compared to LA after growing up in the city.
That was my initial reaction, all those IE cities have major freeways that run through them, Corona saddles the 91/15; Ontario the 15/10/60.
I live in Ontario and work in construction throughout San Bernardino, riverside, and imperial county which involves a toooon of driving and yea I’ve seen some crazy shit
I was surprised Temecula wasn't even higher considering how people drive here.
I need to get TF out of SoCal. I knew drivers here were shitty but sheeeesh.
Just moved to Denver a little over a year ago. Not surprised by all the Denver area cities making the chart.
Utah may have some dumb alcohol laws but I think they have helped it not get on this list 🤷♂️
Connecticut really fucking up in the northeast huh
Damn CT making New England look bad per usual.
I was just thinking looking at this. What’s up with CT?
Ban Cars It works for gun violence. /s
Ban cars Legalize robotaxis
Creating better public transit would likely be the best solution.
So the lesson here is, don’t drive in TX at night, or ever if you can pull it off.
Charleston surprised me…smaller city to be in the top 10
It’s ranked by deaths per 100,000, so even if the population is relatively small, a high concentration of drunks will push it up the list.
bullshit,..he drunks better when hes drive!!
So many more reasons daily to never set foot in Texas
What are the southerners on about
Jesus did not, in fact, take the wheel.
Get it together Texas
Between CA, AZ, and CO I’ve lived in 12 of these cities. That seems insane to me.
New Orleans has drive thru Daiquiri stores and they ain’t in the top 75
Shit all of Louisiana damn near has drive thru daquiri shops and Baton Rogue is the only one on there 😂
Where is #74?
I guess NY is so struck that they decided to keep them off the list.
Man I can’t believe San Bernardino is 2nd on the list that’s wild
How is that wild? San Bernardino is full of drunk drug addicts😂
The whole United States is full of addicts period
I guess everything is bigger in TX, even their DUIs.
It feels like half the town I live in has had at least 1 DUI
California be like “WOOOOOOOOO”
Unfortunately I’m living in between 2 4 and 12. 👀
My POS city made it in at number 28, the cops don’t come around enough for those numbers, I smell something fishy…
This list is racist because the top cities are mostly hispanic. Please take this down.
Really? I was thinking mostly white. Corona, San Bernardino, Palmdale!
I was hit by a drunk driver in Ontario California 😭
Me too - hit and run by some guy in a dilapidated 90s sedan on the 10.
Something's fishy about that infographic. Nothing in New Mexico? Nothing in South Dakota? Two States with VERY high numbers of drunk drivers and drunk driving deaths.
Common Massachusetts W
California really said "hold my beer."
More like, “Could you open my beer… I can’t while I’m driving.”
Never change, CT.
How tf did Vegas not make the list? Feels like we have 3 a week
Same thing I was wondering! I once heard a statistic: *** Don't quote me*** that 2 out of 5 drivers on the road are impaired from some sort of substance at any time of the day driving in Vegas.
Didn’t realize Ontario was a city…
Puerto Ricans putting Connecticut on here
Why so many Texas and California states, is it due to lack of mass transit? I ask because on the reverse end it would explain why New York City , Los Angeles, Chicago and major cities in New Jersey aren’t on this list.
How is Wisconsin not represented, we try so hard.
Most cops in the Midwest are shithoused.
Most of us are better driving drunk because we’re experienced
Ngl, I'm surprised Las Vegas isn't on this list with 24 hour bars on every corner in the valley
I feel that Louisiana only having one city in this list is a bit suspect. And it’s not even New Orleans. Fishy.
I’ve been a paramedic in a CA city for a little over a year. I’ve been dispatched to about 50 MVAs. About 30 of them have involved at least 1 driver that was clearly intoxicated. CHP and the local PD let the intoxicated driver leave the scene in all cases except 3. The police here couldn’t care less, even in cases of injured victims.
Woohoo Corona CA native lol It’s funny with 20 years of looking the other way with marijuana that there are so many California cities up there. Still drinking and killing people.
A lot of those counties have military bases
Gotcha. No CA. No TX. Ezpz.
Pretty sure Fresno used to be drunkest city. What a downgrade to 35.
Visalia didn't make the list. Out of all the cities in the valley above 100k, that's pretty much the only one not on the list, isn't it?
It's kind of disingenuous to have these broken down into cities within a singular metro area. Like shit, a lot of those California cities are all adjacent to Los Angeles.
What no public transportation does to a mfer
San Bernardino County is stuffed packed with drunks. So many shout outs lol
Really interesting this doesn't correlate with bars per capita which is all rust belt cities at the top
Midland / Odessa - not surprised.
Corona doesn’t even have any bars. Surprised to see it here
Latino pop. Out of control. 4 of top 5 ??
No vegas?
Texas shows up often on that list!
Texas and CA together
#58 finally Bakersfield is not in the top 10 of a f-ed up list.
I’m from Odessa and not surprised at all. Lots of money in the area and absolutely nothing to do but drink. Tons of men with egos. Since it’s an oilfield town, it’s boom or bust meaning businesses/the city are hesitant to fund any long term entertainment. It’s brutal.
California and Colorado need to get their shit together
Cuz in Memphis you don’t need to be drunk to be killed on the road 🙄
So basically California is always drunk
Probably because in Vegas most people are either driving in bumper to bumper slow traffic or in sparsely populated empty roads and people go out in groups and take taxis and Ubers.
A bunch of Ohio cities, No PA cities….is it the hills in PA that help? Or the flatlands in ohio that hinder? Or the liquor sales laws in the commonwealth? Being from Pittsburgh, this is interesting to me.,.
Glendale AZ does not surprise me… NFL stadium, hockey stadium used to be there (now it’s mainly for concerts) , casino, night life clubs/bars, Top Golf, terrible public transportation options and Ubers/lyfts get pretty expensive (clearly nothing compared to a DUI, but drunks don’t think that far ahead)
I’m from the DFW region. This makes total sense, driving around here is a nightmare due to the sprawl and endless suburbs, along with the lack of public transit. It’s cheaper for people to drive home themselves instead of paying for a Lyft or Uber, so they drive drunk… and get into many accidents. I’ve seen it for myself.
Why is California on there so much 😂 😭
Places with higher density of traffic are definitely more prone to higher numbers.
Odessa still hasn’t gotten over the Booby Miles injury
Woo, for once its not Vegas!
My hometown of Galveston, Tx doesn’t qualify because we have less than 60,000 people but we have like a DWI fatality every other week.
3 cities for CT! Go Nutmeggers! ☠️
They misspelled Ventucky!
We Pros here in Vegas that’s why
Not me thinking that Ontario, CA meant Canada smh
Jesus Christ Texas. Get an Uber
I swear it’s gotten worse since 2022
Only reason Philly isn’t here, is that you can’t get enough speed in the city to even do damage.