Road deaths kept down by under-21s drinking laws
Road deaths kept down by under-21s drinking laws
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Wednesday, 08, Apr 2009 08:09
Researchers in the US have found laws preventing under 21s from purchasing or possessing alcohol can drastically reduce the number of young people killed in road accidents, and more lives could be saved if states adopted so-called "use it or lose it" regulations.
The research, which looked at data about drink driving in young people over a 23 year period, found a ban on alcohol possession for those under the legal age saved 732 lives across the United States each year.
But the report in Alcoholism: Critical and Experimental Research said another 165 young people could be saved if laws suspending the licence of anyone under-21 found in possession of alcohol were introduced.
James Fell, of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Maryland, said: "These results provide substantial support for the effectiveness of under age 21 drinking laws and point to the importance of key underage drinking and traffic safety laws in efforts to reduce underage drinking-driver crashes."
Legislation banning alcohol possession led to an 11 per cent drop in the number of alcohol related traffic deaths, while strict laws on the use of fake IDs saw a 7 per cent decrease.
Researchers also found laws that applied to the general population, such as those that make it illegal to drive with more than 0.8 blood alcohol content, had the most significant impact on drivers under the age of 20.
There was also a direct correlation between the amount of beer consumption per capita in each state across all ages and the youth road accident rate.
Mr Fell added: "This could be because adult alcohol consumption is correlated with youth consumption. The centres for disease control and prevention found that if the adult binge drinking rate is high, it is also high for youth."
"People who want to lower the minimum drinking age say that the positive effects of raising it to 21 only took place in the 1980s and has since lost its impact.
"But we looked at these numbers over a 23-year period. This study shows the impact is still strong, and is keeping the numbers of underage drinking and driving deaths down - more so than if the drinking age is lowered."