Safety Advocates and MADD Respond To Coors Suggestion to Lower the Drinking Age
12 September 1997
Safety Advocates and MADD Respond To Coors Suggestion to Lower the Drinking Age
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 -- Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) issued the following joint statement
in response to published comments today by Peter Coors, vice chairman and CEO
of Adolph Coors Brewing Company, suggesting a lowering of the 21 drinking age
law:
"In what might be the single worst and most dangerous idea of the year,
the CEO of Adolph Coors Brewing Company has suggested lowering the 21 minimum
drinking age to combat underage drinking and reduce alcohol-related problems
among the nation's youth.
"As total alcohol-related traffic deaths have leveled off at about 17,000
Americans the past several years, alcohol-related traffic deaths among 15 to
20 year olds last year went up for the first time since 1990. This tragic
increase should set off an alarm that now is the time to do more, not less to
reduce drinking and driving. It would be the height of irresponsibility to
revoke this lifesaving law now or ever.
"Since 1985, the nationwide 21 drinking age law is credited with saving
more than 10,000 lives of Americans between the ages of 15 to 20. The 21
minimum drinking age law -- which was adopted uniformly nationwide after
President Reagan signed into law a bill requiring the states to do so in 1984
-- has been perhaps the most effective law ever enacted to protect teens on
our highways.
"The success of this uniform law is the reason MADD and Advocates are
working to support enactment of a .08 percent blood-alcohol concentration
(BAC) law in every state so that every citizen is equally protected from
impaired drivers. Why would anyone in the alcohol industry want to repeal or
defeat any law that would reduce impaired driving?
"Perhaps we should not be surprised by Coors' suggestion because right now
in the nation's capital the alcohol and restaurant industries are walking the
halls of Congress to kill legislation that would keep impaired drivers off our
highways. Safety groups are working to include a .08 BAC law in the multi-
billion dollar highway bill moving through Congress this month. This
bipartisan legislation would draw the line against impaired driving for adult
motorists at .08 percent BAC -- a level of impairment at which science has
proven that safe driving skills are dangerously impaired. Yet the alcohol
industry is bent on protecting its narrow private interest at the expense of
the broader public safety.
"It is irrational and dangerous to even suggest that lowering the drinking
age would reduce alcohol use and traffic deaths among our nation's youth. We
need a 21 drinking age law in every state that is stringently enforced, and we
need to finally and uniformly draw the line against impaired driving by making
it illegal for adults to drive at .08 percent or higher."
SOURCE Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and MADD