They included a university honor student, a former diplomat and the son of a preacher, as well as several people with unhappy family lives, criminal records or serious psychiatric and drinking problems. The 54 who died, in 23 states, ranged from a 12-year-old boy sleeping in the back seat of a friend's car in California to a 75-year-old Irish immigrant walking along a Florida roadway. The 54 alcohol-related fatalities were actually somewhat below the daily average of 75 killed in such accidents. Another 91 people died in other traffic accidents.
#Drunk drivers killed people new years eve driver
Fifty-four Americans died that day in 50 separate highway accidents involving at least one driver who had been drinking, although some were not legally intoxicated, according to tabulations by The New York Times from information supplied by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and by state and local officials. It was a scene that occurred many times a year ago today, on Dec. The life of the third was changed forever. None of them ever would, because two of them, killed at 11:15 P.M., never saw the new year.