Assessment of the Traffic Safety Effects of Raising the Drinking Age in South Carolina

摘要

The report presents the results of a study of the traffic safety effects of South Carolina's laws which successively raised the minimum drinking age for beer and wine from 18 to 19 on May 29, 1984, from 19 to 20 on January 1, 1985 and from 20 to 21 on September 14, 1986. Traffic crash data on police reported alcohol-related crashes of all levels of severity, serious and fatal injury alcohol-related crashes, nighttime crashes, serious and fatal injury nighttime crashes, and single-vehicle nighttime crashes were examined for each of the affected age groups to determine whether any decreases in those categories of crashes were associated with increases in the minimum drinking age. Clear benefits were evident for 18 and 19 year-old drivers with less obvious indications of improvements for 20 year-old drivers. The greatest benefits were observed in alcohol-related crashes and alcohol-related serious and fatal injury crashes. When the results of the analysis for all three age groups were pooled, an overall reduction of 22.3% in alcohol-related crashes was observed.