Growing awareness of the risks of alcohol has made people more cautious about their drinking habits, particularly young adults. Young adults currently have the highest prevalence of alcohol use of any age group. They also drink more heavily, experience more negative consequences, and engage in more harmful activities, particularly drunk driving. Although surveys have documented a decline in recent years, drinking rates remain highest from the late teens through the late twenties (Johnston1-3). Despite long-term declines since 1982 in alcohol-related deaths, between 1994 and 1995 there was a 4% increase among young adults ages 21 and older (Hingson 4). As drunk driving persists, legal and community initiatives are stepping in to help reduce the problem, as well as continue research into possible solutions. Problems posed by drunk driving: The biggest problem with drunk driving by young adults is the high rate of drunk driving. road accidents. Although young drivers between the ages of 16 and 25 make up only 15% of licensed drivers in the United States, they account for 30% of all alcohol-related deaths. That's double the number of licensed drivers in that age group. Inexperience with both drinking and driving may contribute to this disproportionate rate. Nationwide, in 1996, people ages 15 to 24 died in fatal motor vehicle crashes, and 45 percent of these deaths were due to alcohol (NHTSA 4). It is therefore not surprising that traffic accidents are the leading cause of death in the United States for people under the age of 25 (NCHS 98). Specific factors affecting this deadly problem are blood alcohol content (BAC), failure to wear seat belts, and inexperienced driving. Of all these, blood alcohol content or BAC level causes the greatest risk for young adults drinking and driving. National research comparing the BAC of drivers involved in single-vehicle crashes to that of drivers not involved in crashes reveals that every 0.02% increase in blood alcohol content nearly doubles the risk of involvement in fatal crashes. For drivers under the age of 21, the risk increases more rapidly with each drink consumed (Hingson 52). Furthermore, alcohol-related traffic accidents not only cause high mortality rates, but cost society $45 billion per year in hospital costs, rehabilitation expenses, and lost productivity (NHTSA 3). It also affects road safety, as the number of arrests of drunk drivers prevents the police from arresting more offenders. In 1995, more than 1.4 million people were arrested for drunk driving, or 10 percent of all arrests made that year (Hingson 1).