Now That Fiesta Has Begun, Here's a Look at How Drunk Driving Spikes During San Antonio's Citywide Party

Fiesta is officially underway, which means the number of DUI offenders and car crashes caused by alcohol-clouded drivers will spike in San Antonio.

But how serious is the problem?

One local law firm broke it down in clear enough terms for chicken-on-a-stick consumers and beer guzzlers to understand.

Hill Law Firm recently commissioned a study with data visualization agency 1Point21 Interactive to examine the statistics on alcohol-related crashes during Fiesta. From 2012 to 2018, there were 595 such crashes during the combined 84 days of Fiesta.

Those crashes caused 348 injures and 13 deaths, according to the study.

If you're a visual learner, here's what these crashes look like on a map. Although Fiesta largely takes places downtown, a number of the collisions occurred past Loop 1604.
"Some people lose their lives to drunk driving, and some people lose [mobility] due to injuries sustained," attorney Justin Hill said in a press release. "They lose jobs and wages, they lose their vehicle."

To put it into perspective, the number of alcohol-related crashes showed a 20 percent increase over other times of the year.

Avoiding injury this Fiesta could be as simple as having a game plan, such as designating a sober driver to being an alert pedestrian, according to Hill

"Make a plan sober so you don't make a bad choice when drinking," he advised.

Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.