Dec 9, 2002 2 min read

Tough drunken-driving laws, especially those that frown heavily on even a drop of alcohol for underage drivers, have worked. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week announced that fatal alcohol-related crashes involving drivers too young to legally drink dropped by more than half over the past two decades. Overall, most drivers – regardless of age – have gotten the message that it is deadly, illegal and socially unacceptable to get behind the wheel after imbibing.

Between 1982 and 2001, fatal crashes where the driver had a blood alcohol level of 0.01 percent or greater fell 46 percent among all age groups. The sharpest decline of 60 percent was found among the youngest drivers, 16 and 17 year olds.

That’s the good news.

Now for the bad. About 1.5 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence, which the CDC estimates is just 1 percent of the 120 million drunken drivers still traveling the nation’s roads each year.

If teens and young adults are getting the message, then who are these drivers? About three-quarters of them are alcohol abusers or alcoholics.

All the education campaigns, tough laws, driver license suspensions and revocations aren’t keeping these menaces off the road.

This is important to keep in mind at all times, but especially during December when social calendars are dotted with holiday get-togethers. While the holidays for most of us offer the opportunity to socialize with friends, for some it’s simply another invitation to party hardy.

Unfortunately, sober drivers are forced to share the same roads. Tougher laws alone, such as the current proposal to drop the legal intoxication limit in Pennsylvania from 0.10 to 0.08 won’t keep habitual drunks from crawling behind the wheel. We might have reached the saturation point where legislation and education will never reach habitual offenders.

Two decades of repeated messages warning of the danger and harsh consequences of drunken driving show that old drunks can’t be taught new tricks. Even those forced by courts to undergo alcohol treatment as part of DUI sentences continue to drive impaired.

It is encouraging to see that younger drivers are learning. They along with the rest of us must keep sober minds and be ever watchful for the drunks among us.