Both Sides of the Bottlecap: Drinking and Driving in Iowa

By Julia Poska, Emily Manders and Derek Tate

Liquor Sold at Johnson County Stores, 2018

Click and hover around this interactive map to learn how many gallons and dollars of liquor your favorite local stores sold in 2018, as well as what each store's top 3 products are.

Data from Iowa Department of Commerce, Alcoholic Beverages Division

Operating While Intoxicated Revocations by Iowa County, 2018

Click to view an Observable Notebooks Page demonstrating the amount of OWI revocations issues per capita in Iowa counties in 2018. You will see that Johnson County has one of the highest rates, meaning that some of the liquor purchased in the stores featured in the map above was NOT consumed responsibly.

Data from Iowa Department of Transportation

Liquor Sales vs. Alcohol-Impaired Driving Deaths in Iowa, 2018

This map shows the fatal consequences of such actions. Click to view an Observable Notebooks map displaying the intersection of liquor sales and drunk driving fatalities in Iowa counties. Johnson County has among the highest liquor sales, as well as the highest fatality rate. The map shows that overall, more fatalities tend to occur in areas where large amounts of hard liquor are purchased.

Data from the Iowa Department of Commerce, Alcoholic Bevereges and the National Highways Safety Administration.

We hope you take away from this page how important it is to drink responsibly. While it can certainly be fun to visit your favorite liquor store and pick something to drink, it's no fun when you get your license taken away for driving under the influence, and even worse when your actions result in a person's death.