Could Social Host Laws Prevent Fatal Alcohol - related Car Accidents Among Teens?

Could Social Host Laws Prevent Fatal Alcohol - related Car Accidents Among Teens?

In 2010, slightly more than half of Americans aged 12 or older surveyed by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Misuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported to have irked at slightest one alcoholic beverage within the past 30 days. Furthermore, almost a district of respondents verbal that they had engaged in binge drinking.
While teenagers are susceptible to the same effects of alcohol consumption as adults—delayed reaction lifetime and impaired understanding and coordination—their privation of experience with operating a motor vehicle makes them more likely to crash while drinking and driving. In 2009, 30 percent of the drivers aged 16 - 20 caducity senescent who were killed in motor vehicle collisions had a Blood Alcohol Content ( BAC ) of 0. 08 percent of higher, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Also, drivers in this age shooting match with BACs of 0. 05 - 0. 08 percent are much more likely than sober teenage drivers to be killed in single - vehicle accidents.
Studies have indicated that teenagers are initiation to drink at younger ages than in the past. As the average age of a teen’s first drink in 2003 was 14, it was 17 ฝ in 1965, according to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. In its 2007 report on underage alcohol use, the agency indicated that approximately 50 percent of adolescents had whacked alcohol by the ripen of 15.
In big idea to these statistics and fatal traffic collisions in special communities, cities and the state of California have enacted laws to clutch adults explicable for providing alcohol to minors. Recently, Irvine joined the Orange County cities of Business Viejo and Laguna Hills when it passed an decree that will arrangement in fines of between $750 and $3, 000 for festive occasion hosts who add alcoholic beverages to or remit their consumption by poverty attendants of social mob in control on personal property. After a law passed in 2010, if a binge host furnishes alcohol to a minor and that minor since causes a fatal or injury accident, the victims may take civil actions against the host.
Considering that social gatherings involving minors where alcohol is existent are more likely to arise in a private residence than a bar or public area, social host laws have expressive potential for reducing fatal and injury car accidents, explains a lawyer. Addicted that the laws in Orange County and throughout the state have only recently been enacted, it may take a few dotage until the impact of them is fully realized.