Public Information Office 210 S. McDonald Street Suite 626 McKinney, Texas 75069 www.collincountytx.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 19, 2006

National Drugged & Drunk Driving Prevention Month

(McKinney, TX) – During this holiday season, the Collin County Medical Examiner’s Office, Collin County Substance Abuse and the Collin County Health Department urge residents to celebrate safely as part of National Drugged and Drunk Driving Prevention Month.

So far in 2006, 23 fatalities involving motor vehicles have been investigated by the Collin County Medical Examiner, who found that 65 percent of those deaths involved drugs, alcohol – or both. The person killed in those crashes was most often a male in his early 20’s.

About 57 percent of all traffic-related deaths in the United States last year were linked to alcohol, drugs or a combination of both, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics. With almost 17,000 deaths in 2005, the statistics break down to someone being killed in an alcohol-related motor vehicle crash every 31 minutes. Non-fatal injuries related to drug- or alcohol-impaired driving occur about every two minutes, NHTSA studies show.

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