[This article was first published, by the same author, on the ‘Drive and Stay Alive’ website in 2003, but the photograph is new.]
A… study conducted by the Styrian Austrian Road Safety Board reviewed the effects of lowering the BAC from .08 to .05 percent in Styria. Comparing 1998, when the new BAC went into effect, to 1997, the decline in alcohol-related crashes amounted to 11.6 percent.
There were 443 alcohol-related crashes in 1997 compared to 387 in 1998. The study concluded that lowering the BAC, in conjunction with corresponding enforcement and increased awareness, is a suitable means to reduce alcohol-related crashes. The study also found that driver behavior depended more strongly on subjective sense of being monitored rather than on the actual amount of monitoring. The study showed that young drivers were less affected by the lower BAC than were older drivers. Drivers up to age 24 years had about the same frequency of alcohol-related crashes in 1998 as in 1997. There was a slight downward trend for persons aged 25-54 and a major downward trend for drivers over age 55.
(Source: Verkehrspsychologischer Informationdienst, Mai, 2000; via The Newsletter of the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety [ICADTS] Vol. 11, No. 3; Summer 2000)
[Copied and pasted on September 20, 2020, from https://www.driveandstayalive.com/lowering-bac-austria-reduces-alcohol-related-crashes/ ]