The Relationship of Alcohol Safety Laws to Drinking Drivers in Fatal Crashes

Voas, Robert B.; Tippetts, A. Scott · 1999 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This study evaluates the impact of three major alcohol safety laws—Administrative License Revocation (ALR), .10 BAC illegal per se, and .08 BAC illegal per se—on the proportion of drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes in the United States. Motivated by the significant decline in alcohol-related fatalities from 57% to 39% between 1982 and 1997, the research aims to determine the extent to which this reduction can be attributed to these specific legislative measures rather than other concurrent factors. The analysis utilized data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia over a 16-year period (1982–1997). The study focused exclusively on drivers aged 21 and older, excluding those under 21 due to the influence of Minimum Legal Drinking Age laws. The dependent variable was the ratio of alcohol-positive drivers to alcohol-negative drivers in fatal crashes, analyzed separately for two Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) groups: low BAC (.01–.09) and high BAC (.10 or greater). Using weighted least squares regression, the researchers controlled for extraneous variables including per-capita beer consumption, vehicle miles traveled, unemployment rates, urban/rural distribution, seasonal factors, and safety belt laws. A time trend variable was also included to account for unmeasured longitudinal changes. The results demonstrated that all three laws had a significant negative relationship with the involvement of drinking drivers in fatal crashes. Specifically, ALR laws were associated with an 18.96% reduction in low-BAC drivers and a 12.81% reduction in high-BAC drivers. The .10 BAC per se laws correlated with a 13.17% reduction for low-BAC drivers and an 8.69% reduction for high-BAC drivers. The .08 BAC per se laws showed an approximately 8% reduction for both BAC groups. The study estimated that .08 BAC laws saved 275 lives in 1997; if all 50 states had adopted such laws by that year, an additional 590 lives could have been saved. The authors noted that these estimates are conservative because the time trend variable likely absorbed some of the laws' effects. The study concludes that the long-term decline in alcohol-related fatal crashes is not the result of a single law but rather the cumulative, synergistic impact of multiple safety laws and other societal factors, such as increased use of sobriety checkpoints and media attention. The findings provide robust evidence that ALR, .10 per se, and .08 per se laws are effective deterrents, supporting the implementation of stricter alcohol safety legislation to further reduce drinking-driving fatalities.

Key finding

Administrative license revocation laws, .10 per se laws, and .08 per se laws were all significantly associated with reductions in the proportion of drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes, with .08 laws estimated to have saved 275 lives in 1997.

Methodology

modeling

Sample size: 912954

Provenance

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Topics

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• alcohol
• drowsy as impairment
• dui enforcement
• comparative international
• regulatory evaluation

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes