Study finds ride-hailing services may be drastically reducing DUI deaths

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Ride-hailing services have helped to prevent convictions, injuries, and deaths related to impaired driving in Texas. | Canva

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(Sponsored Content) — A new study has revealed evidence to show that the increased use of ride-hailing services such as Uber may be having a large impact on reducing motor vehicle traumas in Texas. 

Uber driver David Mountain agrees with those findings. 

"... It's fantastic for DUI; it pretty much eliminates it," Mountain told Washington D.C. Business Daily. "It's also great for folks with challenges. Elderly and infirm people are in my car all the time, and you know, [they] are very happy about it." 

The University of Texas Health Science Center-led study found that among individuals aged 30 and younger, which is the group that is most likely to book ride-hailing services, there was a 40% decrease in motor vehicle crash traumas.

The report, released in June, also found in Houston that during weekend nights, vehicle trauma cases were down by as much as 24%, and that convictions related to impaired driving cases decreased. 

In the months following the University of Texas report, Anheuser-Busch, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Uber, launched the campaign "Decide to Ride" in September, which is aimed at helping to prevent and end drunk driving. 

Uber offers discounts to impaired drivers looking for a ride home, further amplifying one of the most common use cases for the rideshare giant. The ridesharing company and other rideshares have made it a point to market their services to impaired individuals who need a safe way to travel. 

The CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System reported between 1993-2014, more than 1 million people were arrested for driving while impaired by alcohol and 111 million drivers self-reported having episodes of alcohol-impaired driving. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that approximately 28 people die in the U.S. due to drunk driving every day. Despite that number having reached its lowest percentage in 2019 since 1982, more than 10,000 people lost their lives to drunk driving in 2019. 

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