Do open container laws work?

• Position: On First Reading - Alcohol beverage containers; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report - Brief Article

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released a new report with a preliminary analysis of the effectiveness of state open container laws, which prohibit open alcoholic beverage containers in the passenger compartment of a vehicle.

Prior to this, there has been no research on whether open container laws were really effective in reducing alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

The majority of states that recently enacted or modified open container laws did so to comply with federal law that requires states to adopt open container laws or face loss of federal highway construction and maintenance money.

To fully conform with federal requirements, state open container laws must prohibit the possession of an open alcoholic beverage container, as well as consumption of alcoholic beverages, in the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle while on a public road. The law must apply to both drivers and passengers and be subject to primary enforcement.

The study analyzed the before and after experiences of four states--Iowa, Maine, Rhode Island and South Dakota--that had existing open container laws, but modified them to conform to the new federal requirements. The study found that in the six months following enforcement of the new open container laws, alcohol-related crashes decreased slightly in Maine, Rhode Island and South Dakota, but the decrease was not statistically significant. Iowa saw no change in the number of fatalities.

In a second comparison, the study divided all the states, the District of Columbia and Puerto...