Lowering Blood-Alcohol Limit for Drivers to 0.08% Would Save Lives, According to Boston University Study DRUG POLICY STUDIES In a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health, the authors concluded that lowering state legal blood-alcohol limits for drivers to 0.08% would save 500 to 600 lives annually (Ralph Hingson, ScD, Timothy Heeren, PhD, and Michael Winter, MPH, "Lowering State Legal Blood Alcohol Limits to 0.08%: The Effect on Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes," American Journal of Public Health, September 1996, p. 1297).Conducted by Boston University researchers Ralph Hingson, Timothy Heeren and Michael Winter, the objective of the study was "to determine whether reductions in alcohol-related fatal crashes following adoption of 0.08% legal blood alcohol limits were independent of general regional trends." The authors compared alcohol-related fatal crash records of the first five states (California, Maine, Oregon, Utah and Vermont) to adopt the 0.08% threshold with those of five neighboring states that had the typical 0.10% threshold.According to the study, "Four of the five 0.08% law states showed a reduction relative to their control states in the proportion of crashes with a fatally injured driver whose alcohol was 0.08% or greater." Pooled estimates of the five 0.08% states showed a 16% and 18% post enactment reduction in the proportion of fatal crashes with a fatally injured driver whose blood alcohol was 0.08% or greater and 0.15% or greater, respectively. The proportion of fatal crashes with any driver whose blood alcohol level was 0.08% or greater and 0.15% or greater showed a 13% reduction and 19% reduction, respectively.The authors acknowledge that differences in other drunk driving laws, social behavior, education and enforcement efforts in each state complicated their efforts. During the years compared, all five 0.08% law states had license revocation laws for drunk driving, but among the...
