Every day in the United States drunk driving claims nearly 30 lives. Even with drunk driving fatalities decreasing by a third over the last three decades, too many lives are lost to drunk driving. Cost data from the NHTSA shows deaths and damages caused by drunk driving to be over $40 billion annually.
Drunk driving penalties are extremely costly in legal fees and can drive car insurance costs up exponentially. Insurance companies take close consideration of these figures when determining risk factors among drivers you share the road with. You might have a clean driving record, but those around you with a high rate of DUI’s could impact your car insurance rates. QuoteWizard analyzed over a million data points to see which cities had the highest rate of drivers with a DUI.
Below are the top 25 cities with the highest rate of drivers with a DUI:
| Rank | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Greensboro |
| 2 | Boston |
| 3 | Columbus |
| 4 | Columbia SC |
| 5 | Boise |
| 6 | Denver |
| 7 | San Diego |
| 8 | Richmond |
| 9 | Charlotte |
| 10 | Virginia Beach |
| 11 | Dayton |
| 12 | Portland |
| 13 | Minneapolis |
| 14 | Sacramento |
| 15 | Salt Lake City |
| 16 | Bay Area |
| 17 | Seattle |
| 18 | Lexington |
| 19 | Omaha |
| 20 | Memphis |
| 21 | Riverside |
| 22 | Bakersfield |
| 23 | Philadelphia |
| 24 | Los Angeles |
| 25 | Fresno |
How much does a DUI Impact Car Insurance Rates?
Insurance companies deem drunk driving offenses to be among the riskiest when it comes to driving behaviors. If your insurance company doesn’t completely drop your policy after a DUI, then you can expect steep increases in your rates.
We conducted a study on the costs of a DUI and found on average you’ll see an $830 a year increase on your car insurance. Rates will increase for at least 3 years, so at minimum you’re going to spend an additional $2,500 more on car insurance.
Factor in legal fees and fines, you’ll be looking at a minimum of $7,000 in total costs of a DUI. Again, insurance companies are evaluating risk of not only you, but those drivers around you. If you live in a city with a high rate of drunk drivers, their risky behaviors can be reflected on your insurance bill.
Methodology
How did we identify the country’s drunkest driving cites? QuoteWizard analyzed self-reported data from our users on driving infractions, which includes DUIs. These rankings are based on over one million data points on drunk driving infractions from 2017. Cities ranked ‘drunkest driving’ have the highest rate of DUIs per driver.
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