Kentucky sees alarming increase in DUI fatalities in 2023: Report

KENTUCKY (FOX 56) — A recent report shows Kentucky is heading the wrong direction when it comes to annual deaths caused by DUI.

Zutobi, a driver’s education app, released its 2025 U.S. DUI report, which analyzed crashes, fatalities, and arrests related to DUI, with the data that was available as of June 2025. It noted that drunk driving statistics take time to collect.

In the report, Zutobi said it analyzed DUI arrests, road fatalities, and road fatality ratios, normalized per 100,000 people in 2023.

The report showed that, not only is Kentucky highly ranked when it comes to drunk driving, but it also saw one of the nation’s highest increases in DUI fatalities in 2023.

Zutobi recorded an 8.1% decrease in national DUI fatalities from 2022 to 2023, which it said was the first significant year-over-year improvement since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data showed a 12.5% increase in DUI fatalities in 2023, increasing from 176 in 2022 to 198. Overall, Zutobi calculated that Kentucky experiences around 6.6 DUI fatalities per 100,000.

Other notable data points from 2023 include Kentucky posting a 24.32% DUI road fatality rate when compared to all road fatalities and just over 438 DUI arrests per 100,000 drivers.

Nationally, Zutobi found that from 1985 to 2023, DUI fatalities have decreased from 41% to 30%, but post-pandemic numbers are still higher than pre-pandemic rates.

As for the Commonwealth’s DUI severity score, calculated by taking the normalized average score across the three factors, Kentucky ranked as having the 14th-worst severe DUIs.

Zutobi showed a concerning disparity between the fatal crash rates in male drivers vs. female drivers, both in Kentucky and nationally. Men continue to be over 300% more likely to be involved in a fatal drunk driving accident than women.

In 2023, the report revealed that over 7,200 male drivers died as a result of a DUI, while just over 1,700 impaired female drivers died. As for Kentucky, 116 male drivers died as a result of DUI vs. only 27 females. In other words, in Kentucky, men are roughly 430% more likely to die while driving impaired than women.

To view the full study, click here.