National Governors Association Selects 10 States for Data-Driven Strategies to Address Impaired Driving

As state and local governments adjust to the changing landscape of drug use, the National Governors Association will assist 10 states in developing and executing action plans to improve data collection and standardization efforts related to impaired driving.

Staff from the NGA Center for Best Practices will work with participating states through a series of engagements, including webinars and state team time sessions, during September and October.

Through the learning collaborative, states will learn and share strategies to strengthen and better leverage data to address impaired driving, including tools for data collection and standardization. For states considering legislative changes or executive action around cannabis, fentanyl, polysubstance, and/or other drug policies, this learning collaborative will provide a forum and technical assistance platform to address the collection, sharing and leveraging of impaired driving data to monitor and reduce traffic-related injuries.

The states selected are: Colorado, Connecticut, Hawai‘i, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.

This project is funded through a grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2018, according to a CDC report, 20.5 million Americans aged 16 and older reported driving under the influence of alcohol, 12 million reported driving under the influence of marijuana, and 2.3 million reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs other than marijuana.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2018, 10,511 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for 29 percent of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.