by Channel 2 News staff
Sunday, January 31, 2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Anchorage Police Department has released statistics about local traffic fatalities in the last 30 years.
From 1980 to 2009, APD has investigated 589 fatal collisions, in which 637 people were killed. Police say alcohol was a factor in about 56 percent of the collisions. Five percent involved drug use, and nearly 11 percent involved both drugs and alcohol.
In the five-year period from January 2005 to December 2009, APD has made more than 10,000 arrests for driving while intoxicated.
Research done by the National Traffic Law Center and Mothers Against Drunk Driving shows that DWI offenders are seldom caught the first time they drive impaired.
