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SC's Highway Safety Act Makes Zero Tolerance for Youth the Law

6 July 1998

South Carolina's Omnibus Highway Safety Act
Makes Zero Tolerance for Youth the Law of the Land

        President Clinton today praised South Carolina for passing a zero
tolerance law prohibiting young people from drinking and driving.  With
today's signing of the Omnibus Highway Safety Act, South Carolina becomes
the 50th state to enact zero tolerance for young drivers.

        "Three years ago I called upon the nation to pass zero tolerance
laws in every state," President Clinton said.  "With the signing of this
legislation, zero tolerance will effectively become the law of the land,
and I commend Governor Beasley and the South Carolina legislature for
helping us meet this important national goal."

        Zero tolerance laws make it illegal for persons under the age of
21 to drive with any measurable amount of alcohol in their system,
defined as a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .02 or less. Several
studies show conclusively that zero tolerance laws save lives. For
example, Maryland's zero tolerance law produced an 11 percent decrease in
the number of drinking drivers under age 21 involved in crashes. In four
other states, the number of late night fatal crashes of young drivers
dropped 34 percent after zero tolerance laws, compared to a 7 percent
drop for adult late night fatal crashes.

        "Safety is President Clinton's highest transportation priority,
and South Carolina's zero tolerance law concludes a chapter in making the
nation's highways safer," U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater
said.  "Achieving zero tolerance laws for young drivers in every state
was a result of partnership between the federal and state governments
which will save lives and prevent injuries."

        Thousands of young people lose their lives in highway crashes
each year.  In South Carolina last year, 71 people under age 21 lost
their lives in alcohol-related crashes.

        At a news conference and bill signing in Columbia, S.C., National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Deputy Administrator Philip
Recht said, "Today South Carolina takes a giant step forward in
protecting our young people against impaired driving.  Nationally, we are
all moving in the right direction.  We have momentum.  We are enacting
good laws and enforcing those laws."

        In 1995, President Clinton set a national goal to reduce
alcohol-related fatalities to 11,000 by 2005.  Achieving that goal in
2005 will save 6,500 lives per year, or 18 lives each day.
Alcohol-related traffic fatalities last year dropped to the lowest level
since record-keeping began in 1975, accounting for 39.3 percent, or about
16,500, of the estimated 42,000 traffic fatalities in 1997.

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