Chances are that between when I write this and when you read it, someone will be killed by a drunk driver. After all, in 2008, alcohol-related traffic caused about 41% of traffic fatalities. It’s an ugly mess.

So why are a bunch of colleges saying we should lower the drinking age?

College presidents from about 100 of the nation’s best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

…

Moana Jagasia, a Duke University sophomore from Singapore, where the drinking age is lower, said reducing the age in the U.S. could be helpful.

“There isn’t that much difference in maturity between 21 and 18,” she said. “If the age is younger, you’re getting exposed to it at a younger age, and you don’t freak out when you get to campus.”

What actually reduces drunk driving? I have no idea, so I looked it up.

In Europe, the drinking age is typically around 16 while the more common driving age is up at 18.

Does that prepare them for the world of drinking? Allowing them to have alcohol before they can have a car?

According to this site, Europeans can handle their alcohol better.

American teenagers had a higher rate of intoxication than did their counterparts in half of the European countries. And while more than half of the American teenagers who drank reported getting drunk, less than a fourth of young Southern Europeans said they had been intoxicated.

I still couldn’t find anything definitive that says a lower drinking age improves drunk driving statistics. But I wouldn’t be surprised.

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