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DRUNK DRIVING LAWS
The federal government encourages states to pass laws deterring drunk driving by adjusting grants for highway funds. The 2001 Transportation Appropriations Act withholds a portion of states’ highway construction funds if they did not lower the blood alcohol content (BAC) that defines driving while intoxicated from 0.10 to 0.08 by October 2003.
In 2002, 17,419 traffic deaths were alcohol-related, up 0.1 percent from the 17,400 alcohol-related deaths reported in 2001.
A death is considered alcohol-related when any person involved in the accident had some measure of alcohol in his or her blood, even if it was below the legal limit.
In 2002, 41 percent of all traffic fatalities were alcohol-related, the same proportion as in 2001 and 2000.
All states and the District of Columbia have adopted 21 as the legal drinking age.
All states have lower limits for under-21 drivers, most between 0.00 and 0.02 blood alcohol content.
A major factor in the longterm downward trend in alcohol-related fatalities is the enactment, beginning in the 1980s, of state laws designed to deter drunk driving, such as:
- Requiring persons to be at least 21 years old before they can purchase alcohol
- Mandatory drivers license revocation when a driver's (BAC) level is above the state's legal limit
- Prohibiting open containers of alcoholic beverages
- Instituting sobriety checkpoints.
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