ShareThisBy LEE BOWMAN
Sunday, October 22, 2006
In the first five years after New Mexico lifted its ban on Sunday carryout sales of alcohol, researchers found a 29 percent increase in alcohol-related crashes and a 42 percent increase in alcohol-related crash fatalities on that day.
The study, published online Tuesday and in print next month by the American Journal of Public Health, is the first to examine the public-health impact of lifting such a ban.
"For the first time, we have real data on whether blue laws actually protect public health," said Dr. Garnett McMillan of the Behavioral Research Center of the Southwest in Albuquerque, N.M., co-author of the study.
Although proponents of changing the law to allow package sales between noon and midnight on Sundays argued the move would improve safety, McMillan said, "Today's study finds that the Sunday ban saved lives and prevented hundreds of injuries and fatalities from alcohol-related crashes."
Until July 1, 1995, alcohol could only be purchased on Sundays in New Mexico by the drink at bars and restaurants for consumption on the premises. Advocates of the change to allow carryout had claimed it would reduce alcohol-related crashes by diverting consumption from bars to homes, reducing the number of people driving away from the establishments while drunk.
But after reviewing all alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes in the state between July 1, 1990, and June 30, 2000, the researchers found that New Mexicans did not stay home to drink. Comparing the five years before and after repeal, they found a rise in booze-related crashes and crash fatalities between noon Sunday and noon Monday after mid-1995. No other day of the week showed any statistically significant changes.
"By increasing the availability of alcohol on Sundays, you open the door to more opportunities for drinking and driving and the negative consequences that result," McMillan said.
The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Substance Abuse Policy Research Program.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, New Mexico ranked eighth in the nation last year for alcohol-related crash fatalities per vehicle mile driven.
The study relied on standardized accident reports filed by police officers and covered all reported crashes on public roadways that resulted in death, personal injury or $500 or more in property damage, with the reporting officer determining whether alcohol was involved.
Of the more than 492,000 vehicle crashes reported during the study period, 45,596 involved alcohol, or about 13 per day. The study measured and controlled for historical trends, major holidays and seasons of the year to ensure that any changes seen in alcohol crash rates weren't part of a background pattern of vehicle crash risk.
"For example, we controlled for football season and Super Bowl Sunday," McMillan said.
The increased crash and crash fatality rates translated to 543 more alcohol-related accidents and 42 more alcohol-related crash deaths than would have been expected over the five-year period if the ban had not been in place.
The researchers noted that Delaware, Maine, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia have lifted similar Sunday-sales bans since 1998, and many of the 15 states that still have such bans are considering repeals, both under pressure from the alcohol industry and the prospect of raising state tax revenue.
"Legalizing Sunday packaged alcohol sales may increase state tax revenues, but at the same time exact a significant price that is paid by crash victims and their loved ones," the study concluded.
On the Net: www.ajph.org
(Contact Lee Bowman at BowmanL(at)SHNS.com.)
