Drunk Driving in Colorado - Colorado's Wine Country Ranks Highest

DENVER, Aug. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- It's the one contest you don't want to win, and our Colorado's Wine Country tops the Denver area in the "drunkest" category. Statistics published by the Persistent Drunk Driver Committee, a monitoring body formed legislatively (Persistent Drunk Driver Act of 1998), show that the "western slope," also known as Colorado's wine country, had the highest average blood alcohol content (BAC) for DUI arrests in 2013.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140815/136686
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140815/136687

Mesa County led the state, with an average BAC of .176, with last year's leaders – Jefferson and Gilpin Counties at .175. The state average was .136 and the statutory level for DUI is set at .08.

Jay Tiftickjian, an attorney who handles DUI and drug offense cases, isn't hopeful that the situation will improve. "Nationwide, DUI arrests have fallen since 2000 – down about 24%," said Tiftickjian, "But the numbers in Colorado seem to have leveled off the last few years." He also points out an expected rise in DUI-D, or "drugged driving" with marijuana now legal for adult use in the state.

"The average BAC gives a different picture than arrest statistics alone, since population and enforcement levels vary by municipality." The per capita arrest rate and number of arrests by county are shown below.

Tiftickjian Law Firm, P.C., based in Denver , has commissioned a graphic to increase public awareness on Colorado DUI. It is available in a format for embedding on the web on Jay's Denver DUI website you can access here.  "We'd very much like this information to spread, and we've made it easy to digest and for others to embed in their own blogs or through social media," said Tiftickjian. "With legal marijuana stealing the spotlight, we don't want attention taken from drunk driving, which is still the number one preventable cause of fatal traffic accidents in our state."

Resources for media professionals:

Interview requests and high-res copies of the graphics for print or online publication can be obtained from DUI Attorney Jay Tiftickjian, Tiftickjian Law Firm, 303-991-5896. Basic graphic for web use at: http://www.criminallawdenver.com/denver-dui-defense/colorados-drunkest-counties/

Resources on DUI in Colorado:

Denver DUI Blog : www.MyDenverDUILawyer.com

2012 county DUI statistics: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2013/06/drunkest_drunk_drivers_colorado.php

Arrests nationwide by state: http://www.statisticbrain.com/number-of-dui-arrests-per-state/

Persistent Drunk Driving Committee at Colorado Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/CDHS-BehavioralHealth/CBON/1251581819668

2013 County Data at No DUI Colorado: http://www.noduicolorado.org/DUIStatisticsByCounty/#.U-37_2P4LDc

Information on DUI-D: http://www.criminallawdenver.com/denver-dui-defense/driving-under-the-influence-of-drugs-dui-d/

SOURCE Tiftickjian Law Firm