Originally published by SacBee.com on Sept. 5, 2018

American River College ranked fifth deadliest in the nation for alcohol-related car crashes on or around college campuses with 87 reported fatalities between 2012 and 2016, according to a recent data analysis by Cheap Car Insurance.

The study used a 3-mile radius for rural, suburban, and town colleges as well as a 1.5 mile radius for city colleges.

In addition, using data collected from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which is hosted by the National Center for Education Statistics and provides information on higher education institutions in the U.S., the study included all public and private nonprofit schools with at least 5,000 students enrolled.

Other California schools in the top five included Southwest College in Los Angeles, which ranked No. 1 with 146 deaths, and El Camino College’s Compton Center at No. 4 with just one more reported death than ARC at 88.

The analysis of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that nearly 29 people die each day as a result of alcohol-related car accidents in the U.S. That’s more than one person every hour, and the NHTSA says the nationwide total of DUI fatalities increased to more than 10,000 in 2016.

Furthermore, California was the deadliest state in the nation during that same period with one in four car crash deaths on or around college campuses being related to alcohol consumption and 2,625 fatalities in total.

By comparison, the data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System points out that Nevada, Oregon and Arizona had a combined total of 474 alcohol-related car crash deaths near college campuses, Cheap Car Insurance said.

The NHTSA also reports, according to the analysis, that approximately 60 percent of college students between the ages of 18 and 22 drink alcohol, even though many of them are not of legal drinking age.

Most drinking-related car crashes near college campuses occur on Saturdays and Sundays, which is on par with the rest of the U.S., according to information from Mothers Against Drunk Driving as cited in the report.

“Fatal alcohol-related crashes are 17 percent more likely to occur between midnight and 2 a.m. around college campuses than anywhere else in the country,” the report said.

A version of this story was also published in the print edition of The Sacramento Bee in the local section on page 2B Sept. 09, 2018.