Hit-and-Run or Hit-and-Stay? Unintended Effects of a Stricter BAC Limit

Michael French () and Gulcin Gumus
Additional contact information
Michael French: University of Miami

No 16774, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Although they comprise a relatively small subset of all traffic deaths, hit-and-run fatalities are both contemptible and preventable. We analyze longitudinal data from 1982-2008 to examine the effects of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) laws on hit-and-run traffic fatalities. Our results suggest that lower BAC limits may have an unintended consequence of increasing hit-and-run fatalities, while a similar effect is absent for non-hit-and-run fatalities. Specifically, we find that adoption of a .08 BAC limit is associated with an 8.3% increase in hit-and-run fatalities. This unintended effect is more pronounced in urban areas and during weekends, which are typical settings for hit-and-run incidents.

Keywords: BAC; hit-and-run; traffic fatalities; DUI; FARS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H73 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-law and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - revised version published in: Risk Analysis , 2024, 44 (8), 1931 - 1948

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp16774.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16774

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().