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College Drinking Contributes to Teen Accidents

The incidences of alcohol use among the general population have declined over the past few years, but the rates of drinking among college students have actually increased over the same period of time.  College drinking and binge drinking are huge problems that contribute to several alcohol-related teen accidents every year.  In 2002, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism issued its recommendations to curb drinking in colleges.

Their recommendations were based on four tiers of varying degrees of effectiveness.  Tier one was the most effective strategy, compared to Tier 4 which was the least effective.

• Tier 1 involved individual intervention, including assessment of the person’s alcohol-related problems, and using measures to change these behaviors.
• Tier 2 involved enforcement of minimum drinking age laws, as well as other laws to prevent impaired driving, increased taxes on alcohol and alcohol beverages, restrictions on licensed beverage retailers, responsible alcohol service policies in commercial settings, and the formation of a campus coalition to implement all these policies.
• Tier 3 involved adopting policies that discourage drinking on campus.  These included measures to reduce the incidences of weekend drinking by establishing Saturday morning classes, banning keg parties, banning alcohol in dormitories and refusing sponsorship from the alcohol industry to send a clear message to students.
• Tier 4 strategies merely informed students about the dangers of excessive alcohol use.

This year, researchers at the US of Minnesota School of Public Health followed up on the recommendations of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, to see how effective these have been in decreasing binge drinking, drunk driving and other alcohol-related excesses by college students.  Out of the 351 colleges that responded to the University of Minnesota School of Public Health study, 22% were unfamiliar with the recommendations.  At least 90% colleges in the study were using the recommendations ineffectively.  23% of the colleges had not implemented either Tier I or Tier II strategies, which were some of the most effective.  65% of the colleges had implemented one or two of the recommendations in these two tiers.

The University Of Minnesota researchers are taking these findings to mean that colleges haven’t really managed to address the problem of underage drinking, binge drinking and other dangerous behaviors that can contribute to drunk driving.  In fact, far from voluntarily complying with the recommendations, many of the colleges don’t even seem to be familiar with the recommendations.

However, the researchers did note that larger colleges that had more than 2500 students, seemed to be able to do a better job of limiting drinking among college students, than small institutions.  Larger colleges were more likely to use individual interventions to prevent alcohol-related excesses, and were also likely to use compliance checks to prohibit underage drinking.

Underage drinking or teen drinking is a major factor in teen motorist-related accidents every year.  California drunk driving accident lawyers have always believed that a collaboration of efforts by parents, colleges and communities is the only way to deal with this problem.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of drunk driving accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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