Final figures from NHTSA show that both total traffic fatalities and drunk driving deaths declined by 9.7% in 2008. As INSIGHTS reported last year, NHTSA no longer reports a figure for "alcohol-related fatalities" that includes deaths in crashes involving drivers with low BAC levels (under .08) or deaths of pedestrians/cyclists with measurable BACs. So NHTSA's current data series is a closer reflection of crash deaths that involve alcohol-impaired drivers, with BAC's of .08 and higher. This figure declined from 13,041 in 2007 to 11,773 in 2008. Below we present the figures by region and state. Trends vary quite sharply. Only 7 states recorded increases in alcohol-impaired deaths in 2008. Eighteen states saw declines of 15% or more. That included a 33.8% drop in Wisconsin where there has been a great deal of publicity about attempts to strengthen drunk driving laws. Regionally, alcohol-impaired crash deaths declined by 15% or more in the New England and the East North Central regions, but only by 4.3% in the West South Central region. As a percentage of all traffic deaths, alcohol-impaired fatalities were the same 31.6% in 2007 and 2008. These figures ranged from a low of 16-17% in Vermont and Utah to a high of 42-44% in Wyoming and South Carolina.

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John McCardell's Amethyst Initiative may be making only modest inroads in getting legislators to consider a lower drinking age, but the mainstream and academic press continues to cover the issue. Some recent highlights:

"There may be good philosophical arguments about why the drinking age should be lower than 21, but our study demonstrates the higher minimum age has been good for public health." So concluded a report in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry which found a sharp decline in binge drinking by 18-20 yr-old males (among non-college students) after the drinking age rose to 21.

The NY Times picked up this study to editorialize against the Amethyst Initiative and a lower drinking age, for the second time in less than a year. In a July 1 editorial, the Times advised college presidents who criticize the higher drinking age to rather "look at their own policies." Solutions to binge drinking on campus, the editorial concluded, "almost certainly lie mostly within the colleges … not by lowering the legal drinking age." Interestingly, not one of the half dozen letters that the paper printed yesterday in response defended the higher minimum age. Most directly challenged it. Most powerfully, the mother of a young woman who died from binge drinking fully supported the Amethyst Initiative. Her letter concluded: "Let's see what happens when alcohol consumption returns to public places where adults can model responsible behavior and monitor irresponsible behavior. If that had been allowed, my daughter would probably still be alive."

The day before the NYT editorial, the Kansas City Star took the opposite position, opining that "lowering the drinking age to 18 is not a cure-all, but it's a good start."

"The logic of the Amethyst Initiative is that if we take away the allure of illegality, American youth will stop binging. That conclusion is wrong. Alcohol should be forbidden to 18-20 year-olds precisely because they have a propensity to binge drink whether the stuff is illegal or not - especially males." So concluded Carla Main in the June-July issue of Policy Review. Main believes America should not "throw in the towel on the 21 laws until we have actually enforced them as they were meant to be enforced."

"Our findings suggest that a lower drinking age increases risky sexual behavior among young people, and that leads to more unplanned pregnancies that result in premature birth and low birth weight." That's the conclusion of yet another recent study, this one in The Journal of Health Economics.

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