After analyzing fatal crashes in the United States over a 20 year period, we found that Fremont County had the highest percentage of fatal crashes that were alcohol-related. To add context to this, we dove deeper.
In Fremont County, 47 percent of all fatal crashes involved alcohol during the study period, the highest percentage of any county in the US.
In the table below, we break it down further by buzzed and drunk and compare all counties in Wyoming.
| County | PCT BAC >0.01 | PCT BAC >=0.08 |
|---|---|---|
| Fremont | 51% | 39% |
| Sublette | 51% | 37% |
| Sheridan | 43% | 33% |
| Crook | 49% | 33% |
| Big Horn | 46% | 32% |
| Park | 46% | 31% |
| Weston | 57% | 28% |
| Goshen | 45% | 27% |
| Campbell | 38% | 26% |
| Natrona | 41% | 24% |
| Converse | 41% | 24% |
| Teton | 41% | 23% |
| Hot Springs | 41% | 22% |
| Uinta | 35% | 21% |
| Laramie | 36% | 20% |
| Lincoln | 27% | 19% |
| Sweetwater | 33% | 19% |
| Johnson | 31% | 18% |
| Washakie | 28% | 16% |
| Platte | 32% | 15% |
| Albany | 28% | 15% |
| Carbon | 31% | 14% |
| Niobrara | 29% | 8% |
Why is it so high in Fremont County? While there are likely several factors involved, we found two possible explanations. The first is that drivers fatal crashes in Fremont County had the highest average BAC of any county in Wyoming.
| County | Mean BAC of drivers withany alcohol in their system | Mean BAC of drunk drivers |
|---|---|---|
| Fremont | 0.175 | 0.215 |
| Lincoln | 0.162 | 0.209 |
| Sublette | 0.156 | 0.202 |
| Sheridan | 0.152 | 0.189 |
| Campbell | 0.146 | 0.199 |
| Crook | 0.141 | 0.198 |
| Washakie | 0.140 | 0.218 |
| Park | 0.136 | 0.183 |
| Goshen | 0.131 | 0.201 |
| Natrona | 0.127 | 0.193 |
| Sweetwater | 0.126 | 0.192 |
| Laramie | 0.126 | 0.194 |
| Converse | 0.126 | 0.190 |
| Big Horn | 0.125 | 0.167 |
| Uinta | 0.123 | 0.184 |
| Albany | 0.122 | 0.204 |
| Johnson | 0.116 | 0.176 |
| Platte | 0.116 | 0.199 |
| Teton | 0.108 | 0.175 |
| Weston | 0.107 | 0.185 |
| Carbon | 0.098 | 0.191 |
| Hot Springs | 0.089 | 0.135 |
| Niobrara | 0.085 | 0.206 |
The second is potentially more contentious. Fremont County is home to tribal gambling and has the state’s only hotel and casinos. Many studies have found a connection between an increase in fatal crashes and the presence of casinos, including one from the Journal of Health Economics that found an increase of 9.2 percent on average.
We plotted all fatal crashes along with the three casinos to visualize the potential relationships. Red dots indicate a crash involving at least one driver with a BAC over .08, orange indicates a driver with a BAC between .01 and .07 and grey dots indicate crashes where neither driver had alcohol in their system.
