But it’s a city that didn’t take a top spot that’s a surprise. Houston came in at only number 50 on the Men’s Health Magazine 2013 list of the 100 Drunkest Cities in America. And yet each year for the past several years, Harris County has been the site of the most DWI accidents and fatalities in America by NHTSA and TxDOT statistics.
The synopsis of results I read from Men’s Health did not discuss the magazine’s methodology in reaching its conclusions. It might have been something as simple as a voluntary survey: “Please respond to this survey and tell us if you regularly drink and/or drive.”
The Men’s Health Magazine list gave Bakersfield, California the very top spot for drunkenness. Our Houston car accident injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC note that San Antonio came in second. And several other Texas cities came in ahead of Houston, which we were astonished to find was only number 50 out of 100 on the Men’s Health list.
2. San Antonio
8. Austin
13. Corpus Christi
17. El Paso
27. Fort Worth
21. Lubbock
Even more strangely, Dallas came in as the 16th most sober city in the United States. This can’t be true. This writer lives in Dallas, and about 30% of the time in traffic is behind someone weaving incoherently among the traffic lanes. And they’re not texting.
New York City came in as the 3rd most sober city. Well, I used to live there for 10 years, and I don’t think that’s true. But generally, we were at least taking the train rather than driving.
KPRC just ran an article mentioning that Harris County constables would be cracking down on drunk drivers for safety reasons during the New Year’s holiday week. Apparently, Precinct 4 just lost a couple of patrol cars and had multiple deputies injured when drunken drivers crashed into them on duty. So they have a recent, vivid reason to know just how dangerous drunken drivers can be to innocent victims.
Click the link to read about an example of the type of horrific and deadly Texas drunken driving accident that occurs almost daily. This one occurred in Austin, number 8 for drunkenness on the Men’s Health list.