THE RELATIONSHIP OF 16 UNDERAGE DRINKING LAWS TO REDUCTIONS IN UNDERAGE DRINKING DRIVERS IN FATAL CRASHES IN THE UNITED STATES

Most people think of the minimum legal drinking age 21 (MLDA 21) as a single law, but in fact it includes a set of at least 16 provisions that vary from state to state. This study reports on an effort to evaluate and interrelate a basic set of 16 laws directed at underage 21 youth which are designed to (a) control the sales of alcohol to youth, (b) prevent possession and consumption of alcohol by youth, and (c) prevent alcohol impaired driving by those underage 21. Data for the study was drawn from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) dataset (1998–2005) which provided information on 15 of the 16 laws examined. For Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) nighttime restrictions, information from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) was used. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was used to analyze drinking and non-drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes. The first objective of this study was to determine whether there was any relationship between the existence and strength of the various underage drinking laws in a State and th