As Owen would say: "Heh."
Wisconsinites drive under the influence of alcohol - or, at least, admit to it - at a higher rate than the residents of any other state, a newly released federal study shows.
More than 26% of Wisconsin adults 18 and older told government researchers in massive nationwide surveys that they had driven under the influence in the previous year.
Not only was that the highest percentage of any state, it was more than 70% above the national average, 15.1%.
Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,742
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This is the grave of Gee Gee Geyer. Born in 1935 in Chicago, Geraldine
Geyer grew up there. A story she liked to tell was about how she hated
bullies. Ev...
1 hour ago
This statistic is certainly nothing to be proud of. I hope the results mostly reflect that we are more honest than average. I already knew that collectively we could drink any other state under the table.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of other states that have greater frequencies of alcohol related traffic deaths than we do.
There's also the "actual survey questions" question.
ReplyDeleteSubjectivity issues, like "what's 'under the influence' actually mean" to the respondent.
The Wisconsin number is so high that in any other universe it would be called an outlier.
I thought our ranking reflected on our honesty as well. However, I'm curious to know how this compares to the rate of DWI arrests by state. In fact, I was so curious, I started researching the numbers (which I may write about someday) and found that the number of arrests in Wisconsin is disproportionate compared to the number of arrests when compared to other states.
ReplyDeleteAnd this led me to believe that not only are we more honest, we're a heck of a lot better at driving under the influence than people in some other states.
At least, that's my conclusion.