Drunk-Driving Deaths Fell Nationally. Arizona Went the Other Way.
Data Desk ยท Arizona
+44%
the rise in Arizona drinking-driver crash deaths since 2020, while the national total fell
283 people died in 2024 in Arizona crashes where police reported a drinking driver, up from 197 in 2020. Over the same five years, the national count dropped 6%.
Our record, Arizona · 2020-2024
Most of the country moved one way. Arizona moved the other. Look at crashes where police reported a drinking driver. From 2020 to 2024, the national death count fell. It dropped from 10,623 to 9,979, a 6% drop. Arizona's count did the opposite. It climbed from 197 to 283, a 44% jump. The state added drivers to the record while the country as a whole was cutting them.
2023 was the turning point. Arizona counted 299 deaths that year in crashes with a reported drinking driver. That was its worst count since 2007, when the record held 350. 2023 and 2024 are now the state's two deadliest years for this measure in over fifteen years.
The country got safer. Arizona did not.
Change in drinking-driver crash deaths, 2020 to 2024
Set side by side, the two bars tell the whole story. The nation's count fell by 6%. Arizona's count rose by 44%. Both numbers cover the same five years and the same kind of crash.
Five years, year by year
Arizona's count did not rise in a straight line. It dipped in 2022, then jumped hard the next two years:
- 2020197 deaths
- 2021245 deaths
- 2022243 deaths
- 2023299 deaths
- 2024283 deaths
The 2023 count of 299 stands above every year since 2007. No year in this five-year window came close to matching the national trend, which kept falling every year but one.
What the record can't say
This record can't say why Arizona moved against the national trend. It can't point to one law, one road, or one season as the cause. What it can say is the size of the gap and how long it has held. Arizona's drinking-driver crash deaths have run against the national trend for five straight years. 2023 capped that run with the state's worst count since 2007.
Arizona's full crash picture, including how it compares with the rest of the country on other measures, is on our data page.
Citation
injured.org, “Drunk-Driving Deaths Fell Nationally. Arizona Went the Other Way,” analysis of our national crash record. Arizona, 2020-2024. https://injured.org/data/drunk-driving-deaths-arizona-went-the-other-way/
Methodology
We pulled this from federal fatal-crash records, 2020-2024. Read the full methodology →
Updated July 2026
We count a crash death here when police reported that a driver in the crash had been drinking. That is a floor, not a full count. Many drivers who had been drinking are never tested, and some crashes never get a clear report either way. The true number is at least this high, and likely higher. Full source detail, including how this measure is defined, lives on our data sources page.