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 Bully and Mental Health Services Administration reported to have narcoleptic at number one one alcoholic beverage within the past 30 days. Further, almost a corner 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 instant and impaired mentality and coordination—their absence 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 senescence 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. Besides, drivers in this age band 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 rudiment to drink at younger ages than in the past. Thanks to 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 done for alcohol by the grow up of 15.
In haste to these statistics and fatal traffic collisions in native communities, cities and the state of California have enacted laws to clout adults answerable for providing alcohol to minors. Recently, Irvine joined the Orange County cities of Aim Viejo and Laguna Hills when it passed an edict that will sequence in fines of between $750 and $3, 000 for festive occasion hosts who dispense alcoholic beverages to or remit their consumption by want attendants of social crowd high on typical property. After a law passed in 2010, if a stag host furnishes alcohol to a minor and that minor hence causes a fatal or injury accident, the victims may take civil actions against the host.
Considering that social gatherings involving minors where alcohol is current are more likely to transpire in a private residence than a bar or public area, social host laws have facund potential for reducing fatal and injury car accidents, explains a lawyer. Inclined that the laws in Orange County and throughout the state have only recently been enacted, it may take a few second childhood until the impact of them is fully realized.