Blog Post

Drunk driving accident statistics nationwide have been showing a downward trend for a while now, and we have seen the happy effects of this in California too.  Now, according to information posted on the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, we have the minimum drinking age laws in the country to thank for the dipping numbers of drunk driving accidents.  The NHTSA presented the data at a symposium organized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  According to the numbers, the NHTSA estimates that no fewer than 4,441 lives have been saved in the country in the past five years, because of the 21-minimum-age-for-drinking law.

This new information comes soon after some amount of controversy was stirred up by an organization called Choose Responsibility.  The group had launched a drive called the "Amethyst Initiative" calling for debate about the minimum drinking age of 21.  The Initiative mentions the support of more than 100 deans of eminent institutions.  According to its logic, the 21-minimum-age rule has not been able to stop drunk behavior among teens, and underage drinking is still more prevalent than we would like among high school students and others below the age of 21.  The issue has divided experts, many of whom insist that there is nothing to debate here, because the obvious benefits of retaining the minimum drinking age are evident.  Back when the issue first hit the headlines, we had discussed the issue on our Orange County drunk driving accident lawyers blog, and had reiterated then, that underage drinking is, and will continue to be, a challenge, but lowering the drinking age is definitely not the solution.

The NHTSA had previously estimated that since 1976, the minimum drinking age law had prevented more than 21,000 drunk driving accident fatalities.  The lowering-of-the-drinking-age experiment is one that has been attempted before with disastrous results. Back in the seventies and eighties, when some states had lowered their minimum drinking age, accident rates involving drunk driving rose by 10 percent. When the same states raised the minimum drinking age again, the rates fell back again by 16 percent.

We understand that underage drinking is a problem rampant in our educational institutions, but the solution cannot involve undoing the progress that we have reached though the imposition of the 21-minimum-age laws.  Underage drinking has other solutions that include the involvement of educational institutions, parents, and law enforcement agencies.  They don’t include any lowering of the age requirement. Any attempt to do so would be disastrous, and would undermine several years of progress to contain drunk driving accident rates in so many states across the country, including California.  As California drunk driving accident lawyers, we would like to see more grassroots involvement to get rid of underage drinking – just leave the minimum age alone.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of drunk driving accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.