These new restrictions may seem unfair to young drivers, but there are reasons for them. Other state measures aiding in the reduction of teenage driving accidents are changes to the legal blood alcohol content level. In fact, all 50 states have also passed zero tolerance laws prohibiting teenagers from drinking and driving. Zero tolerance laws make it illegal for people under 21 to drive with any amount of alcohol in their system, defined as a BAC of .02 or less. The normal legal BAC limit for adults who are driving is 0.08.
Several studies show that zero tolerance laws save lives.
For example, Maryland's zero tolerance law produced an 11 percent decrease in the number of crashes involving drinking drivers under age 21. In four other states, the number of late-night fatal crashes involving young drivers dropped 34 percent after zero tolerance laws. Nationwide, alcohol-related deaths among teens aged 15 to 20 dropped five percent from 2,324 in 1996 to 2,209 in 1997. Experts attribute these decreases to the new laws. The youth death toll from alcohol-related traffic crashes is still high.