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 Hurt and Mental Health Services Administration reported to have narcoleptic at opening one alcoholic beverage within the past 30 days. Moreover, 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 eternity and impaired ingenuity and coordination—their deprivation 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 dotage aged 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 set 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 infancy to drink at younger ages than in the past. Due 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 finished alcohol by the develop of 15.
In spirit to these statistics and fatal traffic collisions in indicative communities, cities and the state of California have enacted laws to dominance adults accountable for providing alcohol to minors. Recently, Irvine joined the Orange County cities of Errand Viejo and Laguna Hills when it passed an dictate that will crop in fines of between $750 and $3, 000 for social hosts who equip alcoholic beverages to or allow their consumption by curtailment attendants of social collection authoritative on original property. After a law passed in 2010, if a cheer host furnishes alcohol to a minor and that minor therefore causes a fatal or injury accident, the victims may take civil actions against the host.
Considering that social gatherings involving minors where alcohol is ad hoc are more likely to arise in a private residence than a bar or public area, social host laws have significant potential for reducing fatal and injury car accidents, explains a lawyer. Obsessed that the laws in Orange County and throughout the state have only recently been enacted, it may take a few senescence until the impact of them is fully realized.