Economist Downplays Value of 0.08 Breath Alcohol Standard

Don Freeman

Suspend your common sense disbelief for a moment and consider an economist's perspective on what works and what doesn't when it comes to curbing alcohol abuse.

Don Freeman, Sam Houston State University professor of economics and chair of the economics and international business department, did that and came up with what some may consider surprising conclusions. His study used data on traffic fatalities for the 50 states from 1982-2004.

Lowering the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) standard from 0.10 to 0.08 has had "little to no effect on traffic fatalities," he found.

On the other hand, Freeman says in a recently published article in the refereed journal Contemporary Economic Policy, "consistent and significant reductions in fatalities" follow implementation of tougher administrative license revocation (ALR) laws.

ALR laws allow for the immediate suspension of driving privileges for those who fail a BAC test or refuse to submit to one.

Freeman also offered "robust support" for enforcement of seat belt laws and reduction of highway speeds below 70 miles per hour to reduce fatalities. His research also showed "only mixed support" for graduated drivers license programs such as the one in Texas.

The first state laws against drunk driving were passed by New York in 1910 and California in 1911, but before 1980 most state laws simply prohibited "driving while intoxicated" without any definition of "intoxication."

"As a result, much discretion was involved in the arrest and prosecution of drinking drivers," said Freeman, "and punishment was often light, even for chronic offenders."

In 1980, only 15 states had legislation establishing a permissible blood alcohol content of 0.10. By 2005, after a federal push involving the threat of withholding highway funding, all states had a limit at 0.08.

"Clearly, progress has been made in getting drunk drivers off the streets," said Freeman. From 1982 to 2004 the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities fell from 26,173 to 16,694, even though the miles traveled increased by 81 percent.

Also, the rate of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes fell from 60 percent in 1982 to 39 percent in 2004, but the decrease has been slow in recent years--only 1 percent since 1997.

His approach to determine the effectiveness of 0.08 laws was simple.

"You look at the states before the law was passed and you look at the states after the law was passed," Freeman said. "You look to see if the number of deaths are any different after the law was passed and the answer is no."

Freeman knows that his conclusions will be met with disagreement by proponents of BAC 08 laws, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the organization that began as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and is now known simply as MADD.

The other side of the argument is that the lower limit unfairly penalizes moderate drinkers who are unlikely to cause crashes, while doing nothing to deter more heavily intoxicated drivers.

"I certainly have no quarrel with the good work that these organizations do," said Freeman. "My point is simply that administrative license revocation laws have been more effective than lowering the BAC."

Efficient use of scarce resources is a concern of Freeman and other economists who study issues such as this. Beyond money, Freeman sees the alcohol and driving issue as a matter of cost in lives because of what he considers to be misguided application of laws.

"The branch of economics devoted to law and criminal justice takes this perspective," he said. "Resources devoted to criminal justice are limited, both for reasons of financial feasibility and for reasons of civil liberties.

"So how can we design sanctions against certain types of undesirable behavior that accomplish the stated objective of reducing the behavior, while doing so at the lowest cost?"

He also acknowledges that breath alcohol content laws set a standard for impaired driving and administrative license revocation establishes the punishment.

"But efforts spent to reduce allowable BACs from 0.10 to 0.08 may have been better spent encouraging nationwide adoption of ALR sanctions on drunk drivers," he said.         

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SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
Sept. 13, 2007
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