What does a drunk driver look like?

Are they broke, uneducated, out of a job?

Not quite.

The typical drunk driver charged last year in Lancaster County had a job that actually paid more than the area’s average worker.

More than a third were workers with a degree or trade.

Overall, nearly three-quarters of them were males.

Over half were single.

Also, according to the Pennsylvania DUI Association, the average drunk driver had a lot to drink before getting behind the wheel.

Of 1,544 surveyed drivers charged in Lancaster County last year, their average blood-alcohol level was .17 percent — more than twice the state’s legal limit for drivers.

About a quarter of them had a blood-alcohol level over .20 percent, the DUI Association’s data shows.

“They aren’t just social drinkers,” said George Geisler, a DUI Association expert who works with local police. “We’re talking binge drinking here.”

“Someone at a .17 (percent),” Geisler said, “has had probably ten or more drinks over a period of time.”

An emphatic push is ongoing to remove drinkers — specifically, those and repeat offenders — from the road.

Local legislators and law-enforcement officials met Monday in downtown Lancaster to discuss potential statewide reform to DUI laws.

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman is one leader of the ongoing surge to tighten regulations on drunk drivers and increase penalties for those with multiple convictions.

Stedman suggested Monday taking vehicles from repeat offenders and amping up the use of ignition interlock and other monitoring devices.

“We can not just incarcerate our way out of this huge problem,” he said Tuesday in his office.

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Since 2012, at least five people have been killed here in crashes caused by repeat DUI offenders. Numerous others were killed by first-time drunk drivers, police reports show.

Also, Stedman said: “Most of our fatal crashes are from drivers with high BAC's.”

Stedman and Geisler’s data presents a frightening profile of how much the typical drunk driver has before taking to the road.

“Keep in mind that each standard drink,” Geisler said, referring to a can of beer or shot of liquor, “raises the BAC .015 to .02 (percent).

“And the body eliminates one drink an hour.”

Based on those calculations, a person would need to have about five or six drinks to be over the legal driving limit.

Regarding who drives drunk, the data confirms what many local law-enforcers have said for years:

“We see offenders of all ages,” Stedman said.

But they often have similar backgrounds, according to Geisler.

The typical Lancaster County offender is a male who works and has at least a high school education, the DUI Association data shows.

Their average salary in 2013, according to the data, was $43,655. That’s a jump above the county average of $40,150, according to the U.S Department of Labor.

Other common characteristics, according to Geisler, are:

• Mental-health issues, like anxiety or depression.

• Drinking to cope with stress.

• A family history of alcoholism.

• An underprivileged background.