Young drivers who are of legal drinking age have more motor vehicle crashes compared to those under the legal drinking age.
This conclusion was reached in a new study from the Northern Medical Program at UNBC.
This week, the study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and focused on findings by Dr. Russ Callaghan and his research team who looked at Quebec's motor vehicle collision statistics of young drivers from 2010 to 2012.
Compared to those just below legal drinking age, there was an increase of six per cent in crashes for drivers at or above the legal drinking age. Looking at the details of the crashes, the percentage went up to 11 per cent at night.
"The number of collisions involving both male and female drivers who have just reached legal drinking age rises dramatically, which illustrates the impact that alcohol-related legislation can have on population harm and injury prevention," said Dr. Callaghan, the study's lead author and an associate professor in the Northern Medical Program.
Most of Canada has a legal drinking age of 19, except Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, where the age is 18. The Canadian Public Health Association and nation expert panel working group recommends the drinking age be raised to 19 across the nation.
If the drinking age was raised to 19 years in Quebec, that would prevent 337 police-reported incidents each year, according to the research, and if the age was raised to 21 then about 583 incidents could be expected to be preventable for drivers between 18 and 20.
"Drinking-age laws can have major consequences on driving safety and are an important part of contemporary alcohol-control and driving-related policies designed to limit the motor vehicle collisions in youth," said Callaghan.
The research is part of a series of studies Callaghan is investigating to see what the impact of alcohol-related legislation would have on a variety of harm, including mortality, hospital emergency admissions, in-patients, injury, and crimes like sexual assaults and disorderly conduct.
