Four Nebraska Cities Land Spots on CDC’s ‘Top Binge Drinking Cities’

Nebraska is known as the “home of the good life.” However, what constitutes a good life is up to debate — for some, it’s Nebraska Cornhuskers football. For others? Binge drinking.

Four Nebraska cities made it onto the Centers for Disease Control list of the top binge drinking cities in America for 2010. The CDC defines binge drinking as “males having five or more drinks on one occasion, females having four or more drinks on one occasion.” Lincoln, Norfolk, Grand Island and Omaha all ranked in the top 20 for binge drinking in 2010. Nearly 19.4 percent of Grand Island residents admitted to binge drinking in 2010; 19.5 percent in Omaha; 20.2 percent in Norfolk and 22.7 percent in Lincoln.

Three of the cities — Norfolk, Lincoln and Omaha — have major colleges in city limits or nearby, which might explain the high numbers. Grand Island is not generally considered a college town.

The battle with alcohol and its effects remains one of the top priorities of state officials — and for good reason.

* 12,399 people were arrested for drunk driving offenses in 2010, according to the Nebraska Department of Roads.

* 33,212 accidents occurred in the state in 2010, according to the state statistics. Of those,1,687 were caused by alcohol.

* 46 fatal accidents in 2010 were attributed to alcohol, with 53 total people killed. The total number of people killed in traffic accidents in 2010 was 190. With those numbers, nearly a third (28 percent) of those deaths on Nebraska roads were because of alcohol.

* The most common blood alcohol level of those involved in fatal accidents was .17, two times Nebraska’s legal limit of .08 BAC.

* Major changes were made to Nebraska’s drunk driving laws for 2012. One of the new laws allows first or second offenders to choose between losing their licenses or installing an interlock breath analyzer in their vehicles.

Most Nebraska cities and towns have inadequate public transportation, making it impossible for those convicted to get to school and work.

“The idea is protect the public, and at the same time allow the defendant to take advantage and get back and forth to work or AA meetings,” defense attorney Jim Schaefer told KETV.

* Another new law requires a mandatory two-year prison sentence for those convicted of five or more drunk driving offenses. Habitual drunk drivers are also now limited to a BAC of .02.


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