3% of Fatal Crashes Involved Alcohol-Impaired Truck Drivers in 2010

Drivers of large trucks made up the smallest percentage of alcohol-impaired drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2010, according to recently released data by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

According to the report, 3% of fatal crashes involved drivers in large trucks with a blood-alcohol content above zero, and 2% were caused by drivers with BACs above the U.S. legal limit of .08.

Most drunk drivers causing fatal crashes in the United States have consumed about twice as much alcohol as laws allow, the top U.S. auto-safety regulator said.

More than 70% of deaths in crashes involving drunk drivers in 2010 involved a driver with blood-alcohol content of .15 or higher, NHTSA said.

In 2010, 10,228 people died in the U.S. in alcohol-related accidents, meaning there was one such death every 51 minutes, according to NHTSA.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has estimated about 7,000 lives could be saved annually in the U.S. if no one drove with a blood-alcohol content higher than .08., Bloomberg reported.