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Voas, R. B.; Tippetts, A. S.; and Taylor, E.P. Report Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2001) In December 2000, NHTSA recently published a report on the effectiveness of the .08 law implemented by Illinois in July 1997. That report covered data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) through 1998. It indicated that there was evidence that the .08 law reduced the number of drinking drivers in fatal crashes by 13.7%. Although the number of alcohol-related fatalities increased in Illinois in 1999, these levels were still considerably lower than projections based on trends from before the change in the law. This analysis used the additional 12 months of FARS data now available to determine whether there was evidence to indicate that the .08 law was still having an effect in Illinois. Based on a time series analysis of FARS data from 1988 through 1999, it is estimated that the .08 law saved 60 lives in 1999. This represents a revised estimate of the decrease to 12.3% alcohol-involved drivers during the entire post-law period.
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