Technical Report Documentation Page
1. Report No.
DOT HS 809 382		 2. Government Accession No.
 		 3. Recipient's Catalog No.
 
4. Title and Subtitle

Effectiveness of the Illinois .08 Law: An Update with 1999 FARS Data

 5. Report Date

December 2001
6. Performing Organization Code
7. Author(s)

Robert B. Voas, Ph.D.; A. Scott Tippetts; Eileen Taylor

 

 8. Performing Organization Report No.

 
9. Performing Organization Name and Address  

Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
11710 Beltsville Drive, Suite 300
Calverton, MD 20705-3102
Phone: 301-755-2700
Fax: (301) 755-2799

10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)
 
11. Contract or Grant No.

DTNH22-98-D-35079
12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Office of Research and Traffic Records
400 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590 		13. Type of Report and Period Covered

Second Interim
May 2001
14. Sponsoring Agency Code
 
15. Supplementary Notes

Amy Berning was the Contracting Officer’s Technical Manager for this project.
16. Abstract

In December 2000, NHTSA published a report on the effectiveness of the .08 law implemented by Illinois in July 1997. That report covered data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) through 1998. It indicated that there was evidence that the .08 law reduced the number of drinking drivers in fatal crashes by 13.7%. Although the number of alcohol-related fatalities increased in Illinois in 1999, these levels rememained considerably lower than projections based on trends from before the change in the law. This current analysis used the additional 12 months of FARS data now available to determine whether there was evidence to indicate that the .08 law was still having an effect in Illinois. The results, using a covariate analysis over a 30-month period, reaffirm the findings of the original analysis of the effectiveness of the Illinois .08 law introduced in 1997. The 30-month analysis found a reduction of 13.65% in the predicted percentage of drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes; for the 2-year period (1998 and 1999), the .08 law is associated with a reduction of approximately 105 alcohol-related deaths. An additional analysis, using the ratio approach, found a similar effect (12.3%). While the results of the covariate analysis remained statistically significant (p = .035), the analysis using the ratio approach was only marginally statistically significant (p=.082).

17. Key Words
  • Drunk Driving Legislation
  • .08 Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)
  • DWI
  • DUI
 18. Distribution Statement

Copy available from
National Technical Information Service,
Springfield, VA 22161.
Also, see www.nhtsa.dot.gov for a copy.
19. Security Classif. (of this report)

 Unclassified

 20. Security Classif. (of this page)

 Unclassified

 21. No. of Pages

 

 22. Price
 
Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized

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