Last updated on 2019-11-23
“Alcohol. We’re On It.” And yikes, we’re on the road with it:
According to 2018 figures, there were 5,891 DUI arrests in South Dakota, 32nd most in America.
But broken down per 1,000 people puts the state much higher on the list.
The 721.93 arrests per [100,000]* people are the highest in the USA. South Dakota’s DUI 45 fatalities made up 35 percent of total traffic deaths in the state, which is the fifth-highest rate in America and represented a 25 percent increase from the previous year, which is tied for fourth-worst with Minnesota.
The Mount Rushmore State’s 5.10 DUI deaths per 1,000 people is the sixth highest rate in the country [Jeff Harkness, “South Dakota Has Second-Highest DUI Arrest Rate in America,” KSOO Radio, 2019.11.21].
Jeepers—put down the pipe, the phone, and the beer!
Correction 2019.11.23 15:36 CST: Sharp-eyed commenter Melissa notes that KELO missed a couple zeroes here: BackgroundCheck.org gives DUI arrests per 100,000 residents.
Once again, Thank Goodness we
Don’t have a hemp scourge to deal with on top of this.
I wonder if The Queen or any of her law
enforcement departments can tell
the difference between Burbon
and Whiskey?
never mind, again.
Very frightening. And people are afraid to drive in big cities?!?
721.93 arrests per 1000 people? Wow, SD law enforcement is really busy. No wonder the bail bondsman business is lucrative. And almost 4500 DUI deaths? Are those numbers per thousand or per hundred thousand?
Yeah, but GDP is up. Do you feel happy this morning when you woke up? These rates of arrests and deaths reflect personal despair. They reflect the angst, the hopelessness, the apprehension of people. They are markers of why our life expectancy declined for 3 years in a row. The first time life expectancy declined 3 years in a row was 1918 – due to the Spanish Flu, a worldwide pandemic that killed millions. – hat tip to Andrew Yang
Those numbers reflect stupidity. Not despair.
What population number is being used to calculate that 721.93 per 1000? I think there may be a decimal in the wrong place in your calculation or something. I can’t find an equation where 5891 equals 72% of the population of South Dakota (which was 882,235 in 2018).
In case it is not obvious, because this is on the internet, this is a sincere question, not trolling.
Obviously some math errors here. More like 7.2 per 1,000 or 722 per 100,000.
I’m not sure if the other numbers are correct.
Scott just removed one more excuse for wingnuts total goofiness in South Dakota. They can’t all be drunk.
grudznick is somewhat shocked to read that there are 721.93 arrests per 1000 people. That does, indeed, seem like a bit of an exaggerated number. Maybe a downright lie. I refute it on gut alone. That math would seem to indicate there are barely more than 8,000 people in the entire state. And grudznick knows our fine breakfasting places could not sustain on a population like that, even in Rapid City alone. Heck, that many people probably eat at Tally’s every year.
A major university, I forgot which one, has been researching the suicide problem for years. One of their newly released findings is that a substantial raise in the minimum wage would reduce suicides. IOW, economic despair is a cause.
We know that’s true for farm families and now we can see it’s also true for people who work for others. Makes sense. Raising the minimum wage to a livable, decent amount is a humanitarian act.
Good catch, Melissa! KELO’s source, BackgroundChecks.org, gives arrest figures per 100,000 population. KELO flubbed in copying the data from the chart, and I just copied and pasted without checking the numbers. The ranking remains correct: our 722 arrests per 100,000 is well ahead of North Dakota’s 678, Wyoming’s 676, and North Carolina’s 519.
Always check the math, Mr. H. I, for one, am sure glad that nearly 3/4 of our population is not getting arrested for the slurping of frosty beverages in the car.