The Effect of German Unification on Alcohol-Related Traffic Crashes

The unification of the West and East Germany has provided an interesting natural experiment for studying the relationship between legal and extra-legal factors and drinkingdriving crash rates. Prior to unification, both countries had differing drinking-driving legislation and BAC limits. In the former West Germany, the penal code did not allow driving under the influence of alcohol and other drugs; the penalties could be up to 2 years imprisonment or a fine. The BAC limit was .08%. On the other hand, the former East Germany prohibited driving under the influence of any alcohol (BAC = .0%). After the German unification, the zero-BAC law remained in effect until December 31, 1992, after which the .08% law came into effect. Despite the fact that the .08 law did not come into effect until 1992, the 1990 unification saw a sharp increase in crash rates in the former East Germany, but no similar increase in the former West Germany. Different secondary data sets have been gathered reflecting on the extra-legal factors of moral commitment to the law, group support, economic conditions, alcohol consumption levels, vehicle ownership and kilometers driven. The paper will be presenting the relationships among the various factors and regression analyses will be identifying the extra-legal predictors of the increased alcohol-related crash rates in the former East Germany.