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Assessing the Impact of Twenty Underage Drinking Laws
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Rutgers University, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Over the last two decades, many states have adopted several of the 20 laws that aim to control youth access to and possession of alcohol and prevent underage drinking in the United States. However, many of these laws have not been evaluated since their adoption. The objective of this study was to determine which minimum legal drinking age 21 (MLDA-21) laws currently have an effect on underage drinking-and-driving fatal crashes.We updated the effective dates of the 20 MLDA-21 laws examined in this study and used scores of each law's strengths and weaknesses. Our structural equation model included the 20 MLDA-21 laws, impaired driving laws, seat belt safety laws, economic strength, driving exposure, beer consumption, and fatal crash ratios of drinking-to-nondrinking drivers under age 21.Nine MLDA-21 laws were associated with significant decreases in fatal crash ratios of underage drinking drivers: possession of alcohol (-7.7%), purchase of alcohol (-4.2%), use alcohol and lose your license (-7.9%), zero tolerance .02 blood alcohol concentration limit for underage drivers (-2.9%), age of bartender ≥21 (-4.1%), state responsible beverage service program (-3.8%), fake identification support provisions for retailers (-11.9%), dram shop liability (-2.5%), and social host civil liability (-1.7%). Two laws were associated with significant increases in the fatal crash ratios of underage drinking drivers: prohibition of furnishing alcohol to minors (+7.2%) and registration of beer kegs (+9.6%).The nine effective MLDA-21 laws are estimated to be currently saving approximately 1,135 lives annually, yet only five states have enacted all nine laws. If all states adopted these nine effective MLDA-21 laws, it is estimated that an additional 210 lives could be saved every year.
- Subjects :
- Male
Engineering
Automobile Driving
Health (social science)
Adolescent
Alcohol Drinking
030508 substance abuse
Poison control
Crash
Underage Drinking
Toxicology
Suicide prevention
Occupational safety and health
law.invention
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
law
Injury prevention
Seat belt
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
Driving Under the Influence
health care economics and organizations
Driving under the influence
Original Research
business.industry
celebrities
Accidents, Traffic
Human factors and ergonomics
Models, Theoretical
humanities
United States
celebrities.reason_for_arrest
Psychiatry and Mental health
Female
Safety
0305 other medical science
business
human activities
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8ce024dd0101026d54ffe758503fce68