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 Maul and Mental Health Services Administration reported to have exasperated at rudimentary one alcoholic beverage within the past 30 days. Also, midpoint a accommodation of respondents spoken that they had engaged in binge drinking.
While teenagers are susceptible to the same effects of alcohol consumption as adults—delayed reaction span and impaired grasp and coordination—their dearth 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 decrepit 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. Further, drivers in this age body 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 rise to drink at younger ages than in the past. Now 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 spent alcohol by the enroot of 15.
In process to these statistics and fatal traffic collisions in especial communities, cities and the state of California have enacted laws to purchase adults explicable for providing alcohol to minors. Recently, Irvine joined the Orange County cities of Undertaking Viejo and Laguna Hills when it passed an order that will fruit in fines of between $750 and $3, 000 for tea hosts who hand over alcoholic beverages to or grant their consumption by insufficiency attendants of social collection hampered on symbolic property. After a law passed in 2010, if a function host furnishes alcohol to a minor and that minor therefrom causes a fatal or injury accident, the victims may take civil actions against the host.
Considering that social gatherings involving minors where alcohol is extant are more likely to eventuate in a private residence than a bar or public area, social host laws have telling potential for reducing fatal and injury car accidents, explains a lawyer. Habituated that the laws in Orange County and throughout the state have only recently been enacted, it may take a few age until the impact of them is fully realized.