The impact of the raised drinking age in Texas on alcohol-related traffic accidents and fatalities /
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1985.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to ProQuest copy Link to OAKTrust copy ProQuest, Abstract |
| Abstract: | In late August of 1981, Texas raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 19. This change in the drinking age followed similar actions by many other states. This study evaluated the impact of the raised drinking age in Texas (from 18 to 19) based upon a comparison of alcohol-related injury/fatality (I-F) accidents to total injury/fatality (I-F) accidents. Investigating police officer's traffic accident report data were used as a data base. Two years of pre-law data were compared with two years of post-law data. The statistical data analyses utilized in this study were t-tests and tests of proportions. The dependent variables for this study were alcohol-related I-F accidents, total I-F accidents, and proportions of alcohol related I-F accidents to total I-F accidents. The t-tests were used to test for possible differences in the pre-law average monthly accident frequencies for both alcohol-related and total I-F accidents, due to the law change. The results indicated that the affected age group of drivers (18 year olds), were observed to have had no significant change. The 20 year old group was the only group to have a significant change (a 13% increase). The only group to have a significant change in total I-F accidents was the 18 year old group. This resulted in a 10% reduction which was significant at the .02 level. The findings of the study indicated that there was no significant difference (p < .05) in the pre to post-law proportion of alcohol-related I-F accidents to total I-F accidents examined for 18 year old drivers, though a reduction was observed. Similar results were observed for the 19 year old comparison group. The 20 year old comparison group was observed to have a significant (p < .05) increase in the post-law proportion compared to the pre-law proportion. The overall conclusion of this study was that the changes drinking age law (from 18 to 19 years of age) did not significantly reduce alcohol-related traffic accident involvement for the affected age group of 18 year old drivers in Texas. All analyses were conducted at the .05 significance level. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | "Major subject: Industrial Education." Typescript (photocopy). Vita. |
| Physical Description: | ix, 76 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-55). |