Abstract
The relative risks associated with driving after drinking among US and Canadian youth are analyzed. Information from 3 datasets on youth highway fatalities and daily drinking habits to calculate the probability of dying in a traffic accident when driving after various levels of alcohol consumption are combined. Compared with a sober young driver, drinking 1- 2 drinks increased the relative risk by a factor of 2.3. Drinking 3- 5 drinks, the amount needed to take an average person over the legal blood alcohol limit, raised the relative risk to 10.