NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
The number of U.S. teenagers
involved in fatal drunk-driving accidents has declined because
of laws that raised the legal drinking age to 21, accor$ing to
a new study.

Researchers found that two “core” drinking-age laws passed
in all U.S. states in the 1980s were responsible for an 11
percent decrease in the number of drunk teenage drivers
involved in fatal crashes. The two laws made it illegal for
anyone younger than 21 to buy or possess alcohol.

The findings, the researchers say, suggest that calls for
once again lowering the minimum drinking age in some states
could end up reversing those gains.

In 1984, the U.S. passed a federal law that spurred all
states to raise their minimum drinking age to 21.

Studies since then have suggested that the move was having
an effect on traffic deaths, but it was hard to disentangle the
impact of the law from other factors — like safer cars and
tougher laws against drunk driving in general.

For the new study, researchers at the Pacific Institute for
Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Maryland, used federal
data on state drinking laws, as well as information from a
national surveillance system of fatal traffic accidents to help
account for these other factors.

This is the first time that a study has been able to tease
out the effects of drinking-age laws from those of other
important variables, according to study leader James C. Fell.

“We believe that we controlled for just about everything
you can control for that there was data on,” Fell told Reuters
Health.

He noted that there is a movement in some states to lower
the minimum drinking age. According to the anti-drunk-driving
organization MADD, eight states have introduced legislation on
the matter this year.

“Based not only on this research, but on past research as
well … I don't think that's a good idea,” Fell said. He and
his colleagues report their research in the journal Accident
Analysis and Prevention.

Along with drinking-age laws, Fell's team found, state laws
that leveled tougher punishment on teenagers with fake IDs also
had an impact on teen drunk-driving deaths.

Compared with states with the weakest fake-ID laws, those
with the toughest — an immediate suspension of a teenager's
driving license — had a 14 percent lower rate of fatal
accidents involving drunk underage drivers.

Such sanctions “send a message” to teenage drivers, Fell
said. “Kids do not want to lose their license.”

According to Fell, states that simply confiscate fake IDs
may be “passing up a significant opportunity to save lives.”

SOURCE: Accident Analysis and Prevention, July 2008.