Survey Ranks Wyoming As The Fourth Booziest State

A study by the insurance website QuoteWizard.com ranks Wyoming fourth in the nation for alcohol consumption.

You can read the results of the survey here.

The survey ranked Vermont, Wisconsin, and Nevada as the three states ahead of Wyoming for per capita alcohol consumption. West Virginia was ranked 50th and New York was 49th.

Wyoming's neighbor Utah was 48th. It's worth noting that a large percentage of Utah's population are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. That church strongly discourages its members from drinking alcohol.

The study found that Wyoming residents consume an average of three gallons of ethanol (alcohol) per year. That compares with a national average of 2.51 gallons.

The study found that 6.7 percent of the Cowboy State's population is considered heavy drinkers, a percentage point above the national average of 5.7 percent.

One troubling statistic was that Wyoming ranked third in the country for per capita DUI arrests.

That was actually higher than the three states with higher overall alcohol consumption than Wyoming and was behind only North and South Dakota, which were ranked 1 and 2 respectively.

Among Wyoming's neighbors other than the Utah ranking discussed above, Montana was sixth in alcohol consumption, North Dakota was seventh, Colorado was ninth and South Dakota was 16th.

2022's Deadliest Wyoming County by Traffic Deaths

While car crashes can occur anywhere, some roads in Wyoming are more dangerous than others.

According to Wyoming Highway Patrol data, there were 117 fatal crashes in the Cowboy State in 2022 resulting in 133 deaths.

Of those fatal crashes, the majority (13.68%) occurred in Laramie County -- two in January, one in February, one in March, two in April, one in June, two in July, three in August, two in September, one in November, and one in December.

Sweetwater County saw the second most fatal crashes last year, 12, while Fremont and Lincoln counties each saw 10.

Albany and Park counties each recorded eight, and Campbell, Converse, and Natrona counties each tallied seven.

The deadliest 2022 crash in Laramie County took place on June 17 when two semis collided on Interstate 80 east of Cheyenne and immediately became engulfed in flames killing both drivers and a passenger.

Laramie County also saw two fatal crashes involving motorcyclists, two fatal crashes involving juveniles, and a fatal crash involving a pedestrian last year.

Below is the Wyoming Highway Patrol narrative of every fatal crash that occurred in Laramie County in 2022.