Drinking and Driving Every year almost 20,000 people are killed in accidents involving people (or persons) under the influence of alcohol or drugs. That means that someone is killed from alcohol-related accidents approximately every 7 hours and 29 minutes. These types of accidents end up costing the nation almost $50 billion dollars each year. Which is a rise of 4% since 1994. Every year, the police give a breath test to 1.2 – 1.4 million car drivers and about 7,000- 10,000 boat drivers to eliminate drunken drivers endangering traffic. If a person is suspected of drunken driving he/she is submitted