Between and , however, 29 states lowered the MLDA to 18, 19, or 20, largely in response to the change in the voting age. Studies conducted at the time showed that youth traffic crashes increased as states lowered their MLDA. In addition, the "blood borders" between states with different MLDAs caught public attention after highly-publicized crashes in which youth below the legal drinking age would drive to an adjoining state with a lower MLDA, drink legally, and crash on their way home.
More miles logged in a car meant more opportunities for a drunken accident. Organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving began agitating for a uniform national drinking age of 21 to help eliminate these blood borders and keep alcohol out of the hands of supposedly less-mature year-olds.
MADD's "Why 21? Raw numbers show that drunk driving fatalities have definitely dropped since the early s; since , drunk driving fatalities have decreased 51 percent. Among drivers under 21, drunk driving-related deaths have decreased by 80 percent. Teasing out the underlying cause of this reduction in total fatalities is no mean feat, though.
Non-alcohol traffic fatalities have also declined relative to the number of miles driven over the same time period, which could be attributed to any number of causes, including increased seat belt usage, the widespread use of airbags, and other safety improvements to cars and roads.
Moreover, drinking and driving for the whole population might be down as the result of increased education on its consequences, harsher penalties, improved enforcement, or increased stigmatization of drunk driving. College presidents who supported the Amethyst Initiative —a movement launched in to reconsider the national drinking age of 21—admit that drunk driving is a serious problem, but they point out that it's not the only potential pitfall for young drinkers.
Binge drinking and associated health risk behaviors among high school students External external icon. Department of Health and Human Services. SS-8 :1— National adolescent drug trends in findings released. Enhanced enforcement of laws prohibiting sale of alcohol to minors: systematic review of effectiveness for reducing sales and underage drinking External external icon [PDF-4MB]. Transportation Research E-Circular. Accessed October 18, Get Email Updates. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address.
What's this? This benchmark held steady until , when the minimum voting age was dropped to 18 and buzz began to build for a reduction in the minimum legal drinking age, as well.
Between and , nearly half the states dropped the drinking age to 18, 19, and By , all the states had adopted the age minimum.
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