This paper presents an analysis of the relationships between the passage of key alcohol safety laws and the number of drinking drivers in fatal crashes. The study evaluated the impact of three major alcohol safety laws (administrative license revocation laws, .10 illegal per se laws, and .08 illegal per se laws) on the proportion of drinking drivers in fatal crashes. Drivers age 21 and older in fatal crashes at two blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels - .01 to .09, and .10 or greater - were considered separately. Drivers under age 21 were not included because they are affected by the Minimum Legal Drinking Age law. This study used data on drinking drivers in fatal crashes from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) covering 16 years from 1982 through 1997 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Also included in the study were such variables as per capita alcohol consumption and annual vehicle miles travelled, which could impact the number of alcohol-related crashes. The results indicate that each of the three laws had a significant relationship to the downward trend in alcohol-related fatal crashes in the United States over that period. The paper points out that this long-term trend is not the product of a single law, but the result of the growing impact of several laws over time plus the effect of some factors not included in the model tested, such as the increasing use of sobriety checkpoints and the media's attention to the drinking-and-driving problem. (Author/publisher)
Abstract