Young drivers are less likely than adults to drive after drinking alcohol, but their crash risks are substantially higher when they do.
Minimum alcohol purchasing age laws work.
For a long time, the legal age for purchasing alcohol was 21 years old in most of the United States. Then, in the 1960s and early 1970s, many states lowered their minimum purchasing ages to 18 or 19 years old. The Institute's research on the consequences of this action indicated an increase in the number of drivers younger than 21 involved in nighttime fatal crashes. Institute researchers evaluated this development in nine states in 1981, finding reductions in nighttime fatal crashes among young drivers. The average fatality reduction based on all nine states was 28 percent.