{"id":6201,"date":"2018-06-15T19:40:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T19:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/?p=6201"},"modified":"2018-07-19T18:23:48","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T18:23:48","slug":"restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Says Stricter State Alcohol Policies Mean Fewer DUI&#160;Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do deaths from alcohol-involved motor vehicle crashes decrease when states enact more restrictive alcohol policies? It\u2019s a question being asked by researchers in a <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamainternalmedicine\/article-abstract\/2682617\">new study<\/a> recently published in <em>JAMA Internal&#160;Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tougher Alcohol Policies Mean Fewer&#160;Deaths<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cAssociation of State Alcohol Policies with Alcohol-Related Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities Among US Adults\u201d examined how the strictness of state alcohol policies, or \u201calcohol policy environments,\u201d impact the number of drunk-driving deaths. Ultimately, the researchers found a strong link between the&#160;two.<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol policy expert Dr. Timothy Naimi and his team analyzed 15 years of crash data from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhtsa.gov\/research-data\/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars\">Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)<\/a> run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To measure the alcohol policy environment, the researchers developed the Alcohol Policy Scale (APS), which lists 29 possible alcohol policies in all 50&#160;states.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of policies incorporated into the APS include strictly enforced minimum drinking age laws, zero-tolerance for underage drinking, fake ID laws, and liability for house parties. Other policies focused on alcohol distribution, such as raising alcohol taxes, Sunday sales laws, limitations on liquor store licensing, restricting sales hours, and open container&#160;laws.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers concluded that a \u201c10\u2013percentage point increase in the restrictiveness of the state alcohol policy environment was associated with a 10% reduced odds that a crash fatality was alcohol related.\u201d Meaning, by increasing the strength of their alcohol policies by 10%, states could save nearly 800 lives a year, or \u201cabout 15 fewer crash fatalities annually in an averaged-sized&#160;state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The findings verified the researcher\u2019s hypothesis: stronger regulations for alcohol purchases, consumption, and driving while impaired results in fewer deaths attributed to alcohol-related&#160;crashes.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Toll of Drunk&#160;Driving<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/motorvehiclesafety\/impaired_driving\/impaired-drv_factsheet.html\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> reports that over one million drivers were arrested for alcohol or drug-related DUIs in 2016, but that\u2019s only 1% of the over 111 million self-reported episodes in which people admit to being intoxicated while driving. On average, drunk driving kills more than 10,000 people each year in the U.S.\u2014nearly 29 people a day or one person every 50&#160;minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Stronger alcohol policies such as minimum drinking age laws, sobriety checkpoints, and the .08% blood-alcohol limit have led to a reduction in the number of total drunk driving deaths in recent years, but more can be done to save&#160;lives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a drinking, not just driving, problem, and folks don\u2019t tend to make good decisions once impaired,\u201d Dr. Naimi <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-drunkdriving-state-laws\/tough-state-alcohol-laws-tied-to-fewer-drunk-driving-fatalities-idUSKCN1IX61B\">told Reuters<\/a>. \u201cOur study shows that polices targeting both aspects of the equation are helpful, though we could do a lot better on both,\u201d he added. \u201cHaving a smaller pool of impaired people available to drive is a big help in reducing impaired&#160;driving.\u201d<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/programs\/drunk-driving\/24-7-sobriety\/?utm_source=sobering%20up&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=247sobrietyresource\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/AMS-18-CTA-SoberingUp-24x7.jpg\" alt=\"24\/7 Sobriety Program Resource Center\" \/><\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do deaths from alcohol-involved motor vehicle crashes decrease when states enact more restrictive alcohol policies? It\u2019s a question being asked by researchers in a new study recently published in JAMA Internal&#160;Medicine. Tougher Alcohol Policies Mean Fewer&#160;Deaths \u201cAssociation of State Alcohol Policies with Alcohol-Related Motor Vehicle Crash Fatalities Among US Adults\u201d examined how the strictness of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[49,63,149,237,247,368],"class_list":["post-6201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drunk-driving","category-societal-costs","tag-alcohol-abuse","tag-alcohol-facts","tag-cdc","tag-drunk-driving-2","tag-dui","tag-impaired-driving"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Study Says Stricter State Alcohol Policies Mean Fewer DUI Deaths | Sobering Up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do deaths from alcohol-involved motor vehicle crashes decrease when states enact more restrictive alcohol policies?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Study Says Stricter State Alcohol Policies Mean Fewer DUI Deaths | Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do deaths from alcohol-involved motor vehicle crashes decrease when states enact more restrictive alcohol policies?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-15T19:40:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-19T18:23:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives-e1529090819605.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512\"},\"headline\":\"Study Says Stricter State Alcohol Policies Mean Fewer DUI&#160;Deaths\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-15T19:40:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-19T18:23:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/restricting-alcohol-access-can-save-lives\/\"},\"wordCount\":452,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"alcohol abuse\",\"alcohol facts\",\"CDC\",\"drunk driving\",\"dui\",\"impaired driving\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Drunk &amp; 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