Sixteen states have reduced the per se illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for drivers to 0.08%. There is a substantial amount of evidence from experimental studies to indicate that a variety of individual skills are impaired at BACs well below 0.08%. Epidemiologic studies indicate that the risk of a crash increases sharply for drivers with BACs above 0.08%. To date, however, few studies have been done to determine whether reducing the legal BAC limit translates into reduced numbers of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. To determine whether the 0.08% law produced a decrease in alcohol-related crashes, we examined several indicators. Alcohol involvement in all crashes in North Carolina between 1991 and 1995, as well as fatal and serious injury crashes only were examined. In addition, surrogate measures of alcohol-related crashes (nighttime crashes; nighttime fatal and serious injury crashes) were also examined. All these measures have been declining, almost continuously, in North Carolina since the early 1980s.


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    Title :

    Evaluation of the Effects of North Carolina's 0.08% BAC Law


    Contributors:
    R. D. Foss (author) / J. R. Stewart (author) / D. W. Reinfurt (author)

    Publication date :

    1998


    Size :

    43 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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