The Alcohol-Related Crash Dashboard provides monthly, city-level data on alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes in El Paso, Texas. It is designed to provide timely and transparent information on impaired driving trends to the El Paso community.

Acknowledgements

Several people provided invaluable feedback in the early stages of this project. Special thanks to members of the Texas Department of Transportation El Paso District, for offering ongoing recommendations on the interpretation and presentation of data. Appreciation is also extended to the El Paso Police Department, specifically to the Special Traffic Investigations Unit, for their service to the community, as well as their expertise in identifying high-impact datapoints to include in this dashboard. Several friends and family are also to thank for their continued support and advice. Lastly, I want to recognize the Sober Streets Movement in El Paso, for their feedback, and importantly, for reminding the community that behind every statistic in these charts is a real person, family, and story impacted by impaired driving.

This project is dedicated to the memory of Isaiah Deal, Joshua Deal, and Shannon Del Rio.

Data

Crash data is downloaded from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) website using the Crash Records Information System (CRIS) Query Tool. All crash data in this dashboard represent those reported by law enforcement, were classified as alcohol-related, and occurred in the city of El Paso.

Definition of Alcohol-Related Crash

A crash is defined as alcohol-related if item 38 Contributing Factors in the 2023 Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report contains code 45 (Had Been Drinking) or 67 (Intoxicated-Alcohol), or if a driver’s blood alcohol content (BAC) is reported as any value greater than 0 g/dL. This coding scheme aligns with the Alcohol-Related crash filter in the TxDOT CRIS Query Tool.

Definition of Injury and Fatality

A person is defined as injured if item 16 in the 2023 Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report contains code A (Suspected Serious Injury), B (Suspected Minor Injury), or C (Possible Injury). Fatalities are counted if a person involved in the crash is coded K (Fatal Injury). The 2025 edition of the Instructions to Police for Reporting Crashes by TxDOT indicates that code K is used if “a person dies within 30 days, due to injuries sustained in the crash” (p. 26). In these cases, a supplement report is submitted to update item 16.

Definition of Intoxicated Driver

Driver and vehicle characteristics on the Drivers page represent intoxicated drivers. An intoxicated driver is defined as a person who’s blood alcohol content test result returned a value of 0.08g/dL or greater.

Acronyms

BAC = Blood alcohol content; YTD = Year to date; TxDOT = Texas Department of Transportation; CRIS = Crash Records Information System

© 2026 El Paso Crime Lab

This Alcohol-Related Crash Dashboard is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). You are free to use, share, and adapt the charts in this dashboard for any purpose, including commercial use. Attribution to the El Paso Crime Lab is appreciated but not required.

Key Notes for Reporting

• Crashes, injuries, and fatalities in this dashboard represent those classified as alcohol-related (see definition)
• Crash data is publicly available and provided by the Texas Department of Transportation
• Monthly updates may revise prior counts as data are finalized

Using Figures and Charts

All figures in this dashboard are interactive and downloadable.

• Charts can easily be resized by adjusting the size of your internet browsing window. To expand a figure, click the “Expand” button located at the bottom-right corner of each chart.
• To download a figure, hover over the chart and click the camera icon to save it as an image

Suggested Language

• “Crash data on alcohol-related crashes in El Paso show…”
• “Local data on alcohol-related traffic fatalities indicate…”

Contact

For questions or data clarification, please contact:
mduran29@asu.edu

Calculation of Moving Average

The line graphs on the Trends page show 12-month moving averages for crashes, fatalities, and injuries between 2016 and Present. This technique results in a smooth line, allowing the viewer to see if a trend is increasing or decreasing.

Holiday Analyses

Holidays statistics were calculated by aligning crash data to each holiday. For fixed-date holidays (e.g., New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Halloween, Christmas, and St. Patrick’s Day), each crash was assigned an event time based on the number of days before or after the calendar date of the holiday within each year. For shifting holidays (e.g., Super Bowl and Memorial Day), the holiday date was first computed for each year and then used as the reference point for event-time calculation.

In all cases, crashes were restricted to a ±7-day window around the holiday and then aggregated across years (2016–2025), excluding 2020 to avoid COVID-19-related disruptions. Average daily crash counts were then computed for each relative day to identify typical patterns before and after each holiday.

Missing Data

A small amount of data for Drivers characteristics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, vehicle color) is missing. Observations with missing or unknown values in these fields were excluded.

Limitations

Not all alcohol-involved crashes are identified in official records. In many cases, alcohol use may go undetected or unreported, particularly when testing is not conducted or impairment is not clearly observed. As a result, these data likely underestimate the true number of alcohol-related crashes.

Despite this limitation, crash data remain one of the most reliable and policy-relevant indicators of drunk driving. Unlike arrest data, which are influenced by enforcement practices, crash records capture real-world harm—injuries and fatalities—providing a consistent basis for tracking trends over time and understanding the public safety impact of impaired driving.