Insurance study on DWI

It’s a chicken and egg question: do relatively few New Yorkers have drunk driving arrests on their records because they are less likely to drive drunk or less likely to be caught at it?

The question is raised by a new study from the consumer information website Insurance.com, that finds the New York metro area in 17th place in a ranking of 20 U.S. metropolitan areas in percentages of drivers with alcohol-related violations on their records.

Topping the list — with the highest percentages of violators — are two California cities: San Diego and San Jose.

Insurance.com says the high percentages in those areas are due to their having “more drinkers and partiers in general, less public transportation, so more bar-hoppers are driving home [and] better enforcement of DUI laws, so more convictions.”

Insurance.com analyzed information reported by users seeking car insurance quotes from the website over the last three years. “While factors such as proximity to colleges or nightlife may play a role in a city’s level of alcohol-related driving violations, stringent enforcement could play a key role in determining a city’s rank among the list of 20,” it said.

The company noted that San Jose State University is in the city’s downtown and Santa Clara University is nearby, as are dozens of other technical schools and colleges. And Kat Zeman, spokeswoman for Insurance.com said, via e-mail, that major U.S. Navy bases near San Diego could be a contributing factor to that city’s high DUI rates. “Anything that increases the drinking population, such as a college campus, pushes up the number of drunk drivers,” she said.

Here are the rankings:
1. San Diego, CA
2. San Jose, CA
3. Charlotte, NC
4. Phoenix, AZ
5. Columbus, OH
6. Indianapolis, IN
7. Los Angeles, CA
8. San Francisco, CA
9. Austin, TX
10. Jacksonville, FL
11. San Antonio, TX
12. Dallas, TX
13. Houston, TX
14. Fort Worth, TX
15. Memphis, TN
16. Philadelphia, PA
17. New York, NY
18. Baltimore, MD
19. Chicago, IL
20. Detroit, MI

Insurance.com said the Boston area was excluded due to lack of data.

Above left is the back of a Breath Alcohol Testing Vehicle that is being purchased by Nassau County with a state grant; it will be set up at the scene of DWI checkpoints to provide a high-visibilty deterrent factor.

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