Stronger Alcohol Policies Help Reduce Alcohol-Related Crash Deaths.
Stronger alcohol policies, including those targeting both excessive drinking and driving while impaired by alcohol, reduce the likelihood of alcohol-related motor vehicle crash deaths, according to a new study led by a School of Public Health researcher.
The findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, demonstrate the protective implications of strong alcohol policy in saving lives.
“Given the risks involved with alcohol use, strengthening alcohol control policies could help prevent many crash deaths, including the 40 percent of untimely deaths that affect victims who are not themselves driving while intoxicated,” says lead author Timothy Naimi, professor of community health sciences and associate professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine.
Alcohol is an established risk factor for car crash deaths. Approximately 30 percent of deaths come from crashes where one or more drivers had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at or above 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving in the US. In addition, another 20 percent of deaths come from crashes that involve alcohol at BACs below the current limit. However, little is known about how alcohol policies, which include drinking-related policies such as higher alcohol taxes and restrictions around to drinking and driving, relate to alcohol-related crash deaths.
The researchers looked at the relationship between alcohol policies in states and the likelihood of alcohol involvement among those who die in motor vehicle crashes. Data on crash deaths was obtained from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, while state alcohol policies for each year were characterized using the Alcohol Policy Scale, a measure developed at Boston Medical Center that looks into the broader alcohol policy “environment” based on 29 separate alcohol control policies.
The researchers found that of all adult crash deaths, stronger (i.e. more restrictive) state alcohol policies were protective for alcohol involvement in crash deaths. Specifically, a 1 percent increase in the restrictiveness of policies corresponded to a 1 percent reduction in the likelihood that a crash was alcohol-related (i.e. involved one or more drivers with a BAC at or above the legal limit). Across all states, a 10 percent increase in the restrictiveness of policies would translate into approximately 800 fewer deaths annually. The researchers also found that both drinking-oriented and driving-oriented policies contributed to lower rates of alcohol involvement, indicating the need for comprehensive policy approaches to reduce deaths.
Importantly, stronger policies were similarly protective against car crash deaths that involved alcohol at BACs below the current legal limit.
“Although not reflected in our current laws, the risk of crashes starts to increase at BAC levels well below 0.08 percent, so stronger policies offer a way to reduce those deaths as well,” says Naimi. At present, most developed nations have BAC limits of 0.05 percent or less, and recently the National Academies of Sciences and the National Transportation Safety Board have called for lowering permissible BAC limits for driving in the US.
Timothy Heeren, professor of biostatistics, was senior author on the study; Ziming Xuan, associate professor of community health sciences, was a co-author.
Funding for the study was provided in part by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Peter F. McManus Charitable Trust.