The number of 19-year-old drivers involved in alcohol-related accidents has dropped sharply in Idaho since the state's legal drinking age was raised to 21, the Idaho Department of Transportation says.
The department reviewed accident data from April through December of 1985, 1986 and 1987, and compared it with figures from April through December of 1988.In results released this week, it said the number of alcohol-related fatal and serious injury accidents involving 19-year-old drivers fell from an average of 24 during the three previous years to eight in 1988 - a reduction of 66.7 percent.
The comparable reduction for all other 17 through 21-year-old drivers was 12.3 percent, ranging from 5 percent among 18-year-olds to 21.7 percent for 21-year-olds.
Idaho's drinking age was raised from 19 in April 1987. But 19- and 20-year-olds already drinking legally were allowed to continue under a "grandfather" clause in the law, so many 19-year-old drivers could continue drinking legally until April 1988.
Pat Raino, safety specialist for the Department of Transportation, said alcohol-related accident figures for 20-year-old drivers will not be studied until data is available for April through December of this year, since many of those drivers could legally drink until April 1989.
Raino said a review of Idaho accidents from 1982 to the time the law was changed showed "a consistent pattern of over-representation" in accidents by 19- and 20-year-old drivers.