This report summarises a study of zero tolerance drinking driving laws for youth in four states. These laws prohibit driving by persons under 21 at a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) over .00, .01 or .02 (depending on the state) in contrast to the levels set for adults at .08 or .10. The states studied were Florida, Maine, Texas and Oregon. Two of the states, Maine and Oregon, adopted such laws in the early 1980s and modified them in the mid-1990s to make them more stringent. Texas and Florida adopted their zero tolerance laws in the late 1990s. A review of the process of implementing the laws indicates that administrative license suspension for zero tolerance violations can be handled fairly expeditiously through the mechanisms set up for administrative suspensions for adults. Barriers to aggressive enforcement of the law tend to be associated with lack of familiarity with the law which can be overcome through training and word of mouth among law enforcement officers. The laws seem to be most effective in the states which have had such laws for the longer periods of time. Night-time single vehicle injury crashes were reduced by as much as forty and thirty-six percent in Oregon and Maine about the time the laws were made more stringent to as little as five percent in Florida and not at all in Texas where the laws were more recently adopted and enforcement levels are still on the rise. (A)
Abstract