NORTH CAROLINA – North Carolina is the seventh worst state for drunk driving, according to a report at backgroundchecks.org.

• North Carolina is No. 7 for drunk driving states
• Nearly 28,000 drivers were arrested for DUI in 2018
• The state had 421 drunken driving fatalities in 2018

Statewide agencies arrested 27,915 drunken drivers in 2018.

“We know that that’s countless amounts of lives that are saved because of the work they’re doing,” North Carolina State Highway Patrol Master Trooper Brandon Baker says. “We do that through conducting check-in stations, also participating in ‘booze it and lose it’ initiatives from the governor’s highway safety program.”

Lives were saved, but the state still had 421 lives lost due to DUI, the report said.

“It’s a completely preventable situation, and that’s what makes it even more so tragic,” Baker says.

The report used the latest FBI arrest records and statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The report stated that Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana were the top three states for drunk driving. South Carolina was number eight.

The South had seven of the top 12 states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina) with the highest DUI death rates, according to the report.