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Texas ranked 3rd worst state for drunk driving in sobering new report

Don't drink and drive, Texas.

Texans have no doubt seen the Department of Transportation's highway billboards during the holiday season warning: "Drink, drive, go to jail." Texas drivers need to heed that warning – the Lone Star State was recently ranked the third worst state for drunk driving in 2023.

The report by Forbes Advisor revealed Texas' troubling statistics regarding drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes. According to Forbes' data, 42.37 percent of all traffic deaths in Texas are caused by drunk drivers. The state also had the third-highest rate of underage drunk drivers involved in fatal car crashes: 0.94 per 100,000 licensed drivers.

There are nearly 340 DUI arrests made per 100,000 licensed drivers in Texas, and five people are killed in car crashes involving a drunk driver for less than every 100,000 Texans, according to the report.

"Despite widespread efforts by the federal government to educate the public on the dangers of drunk driving, far too many people continue to ignore the trend," the report's author wrote.

Texans who want to avoid a DUI charge this holiday season should consider carpooling with a designated driver, taking public transportation when accessible, or using a rideshare service.

Four of the top 10 worst states for drunk driving are not in the South, but in the West. Montana topped the list as the worst state for drunk driving, with the highest rates of drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes for every 100,000 licensed drivers, and for the number of people killed in crashes involving a drunk driver.

The top 10 worst states for drunk driving in 2023 are:

No. 1 – Montana
No. 2 – South Dakota
No. 3 – Texas
No. 4 – Wyoming
No. 5 – North Dakota
No. 6 – Oregon
No. 7 – New Mexico
No. 8 – South Carolina
No. 9 – Missouri
No. 10 – Oklahoma

In the report's analysis of the states with the lowest rates of drunk driving, six out of the top 10 are located in the Northeast: New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

Forbes Advisor ranked all 50 states across six metrics, including the number of DUI arrests per 100,000 licensed drivers, the percentage of total traffic deaths caused by drivers with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 or higher, and more. The statistics were compiled using the most recent data from the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the NHTSA's Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool (FIRST), and the Department of Transportation.

The full report and its methodology can be found on forbes.com.

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safe suburbs

Houston neighbor shines on new 2025 list of safest American cities

Photo courtesy of Visit Pearland

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New Year's resolutions can come in many forms, and if relocating to a safe Houston-area suburb is high on the list for 2025, Pearland is the place to be.

Pearland was declared the No. 13 safest city in America for 2025 in a new study by personal finance advisors MoneyGeek. The website's experts examined the most recent FBI crime statistics (from 2023) to determine the cost of crime in 292 U.S. cities with populations over 100,000 residents.

The estimated cost of crime in this Houston suburb – which the study calculated as the "societal cost of crime per resident" – was $471 in 2023.

Pearland's crime cost per capita is far lower the national crime cost, which was $2,178 per resident.

The report also analyzed the city's violent crime and property crime rates, and Pearland had the 11th lowest rate of violent crime in 2023 with only 106 crimes committed for every 100,000 residents.

The city didn't fare as well with its property crime rate; there were 1,669 property crimes committed in 2023 per 100,000 residents, which was the 68th lowest rate out of all 292 U.S. cities.

However, that's still a better rate than most places in the country. Pearland residents can be smug that they don't live in Oakland, California, which had the highest property crime rate in the nation with 10,117 crimes committed per 100,000 residents.

Finally, MoneyGeek determined each city's total cost of crime, which the study defines as the "economic losses attributed to crime and its cost to society (individuals, community and nationally) in millions."

In this metric, Pearland had the seventh-lowest total crime cost, which was less than $60 million in 2023.

While some of these statistics may seem scary, Tulane University associate professor of political science Geoffrey T. Dancy warns it is unwise to make assumptions about a city based solely on its crime rates.

"We live in an unequal society," said Dancy in the report. "One often overlooked indicator of that inequality is who gets to engage in the politics of safety. Those who are objectively safe often fear crime and act on it in the counterproductive policies they support. Those who are actually victimized by crime and terrorized by gun violence pay the price and are rarely heard."

Elsewhere in Texas, the Dallas suburb of Frisco nearly topped the list as the No. 2 safest city in America with a $287 crime cost per capita. Other safe Texas cities in the report include Plano (No. 18), Sugar Land (No. 20), McKinney (No. 22), Round Rock (No. 26), Grand Prairie (No. 42), and League City (No. 48).

The top 10 safest American cities for 2025 are:

No. 1 – Ramapo Town, New York
No. 2 – Frisco, Texas
No. 3 – Irvine, California
No. 4 – Fishers, Indiana
No. 5 – Lakewood Township, New Jersey
No. 6 – Cary, North Carolina
No. 7 – Pembroke Pines, Florida
No. 8 – Elk Grove, California
No. 9 – Surprise, Arizona
No. 10 – Sterling Heights, Michigan

For the purpose of the study, violent crime rates were determined based on the number of murders and non-negligent manslaughters, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults per 100,000 residents; and property crimes were defined as the rates of burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft offenses per 100,000 residents.

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