Straight Talk Law Blog: When Taxes Can Save Lives Lives By Seattle Personal Injury Lawyer Jason Epstein

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It’s no secret that excessive drinking of alcohol leads to more car accidents as well as wrongful death and personal injury. It’s the kind of scenario that’s all too familiar to me as a personal injury lawyer in Seattle, Washington, and it’s something that all of us want to prevent.

Well, recent research suggests that, instead of making DUI offenders pay for their crime after a car accident, when the damage is done, maybe we should consider making them pay beforehand – in terms of boosting the price of purchasing alcohol.

A review of 72 studies worldwide that evaluated alcohol prices and taxes designed to curb binge and underage drinking found that, on average, a 10 percent rise in the price of alcohol resulted in a 3 to 10 percent drop in consumption, along with the same decline on wrongful death and personal injury resulting from car accidents caused by drunk driving .

Results were pretty consistent with all types of alcohol – beer, wine and liquor – and in all countries, including the U.S. All indicated that tax policy used as an intervention to lower excessive drinking rates had a substantial impact. Other effective tools against drunk driving were found to be using ignition interlock devices (the driver can’t start their car unless they are sober), sobriety checkpoints and keeping the legal age of drinking at 21.

No one likes to pay more taxes. But no one wants to see any more alcohol-related deaths on the road. Whatever can prevent these kinds of car accidents that too often result in the wrongful deaths of innocent parties should obviously at least get some serious consideration.

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