12% Decrease in Drunk Driving Deaths Since Passage of .08 BAC Law in Illinois

 - A research study published in the Journal of Safety Research (Vol. 33, 2002), a publication of the Research and Statistical Services Group of the National Safety Council, shows that the proportion of drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes in Illinois has decreased since the state passed the .08 blood alcohol content (BAC) law in 1997. 

The authors of the study, Robert B. Voas, PhD, A. Scott Tippetts, BA, and Eileen P. Taylor, MS, are with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Calverton, Maryland. Lowering state BAC limits to 0.08, though controversial, has been supported by most evaluation studies to date.  The Illinois .08 BAC law implemented in 1997 provided the researchers with a unique opportunity to evaluate the effect of the law without the simultaneous passage of an administrative license revocation (ALR) law, which has clouded some previous evaluations of the .08 laws.  The proportion of all drinking drivers in fatal crashes was compared before and after implementation of the .08 law using time-series analysis to evaluate 12 years of fatal crash data for Illinois and five bordering states. The results showed that the proportion of drinking drivers in fatal crashes decreased by 12 % in Illinois and increased by 2 % in bordering states.  

The proportion of drinking drivers in fatal crashes in Illinois, though increasing since 1995, was sharply reduced after passage of the .08 law in 1997, saving more than 100 lives in1998 and 1999 than it would have without the .08 law.

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