In our line of work, we sue a lot of bars that overserve intoxicated patrons—usually after those customers go on to hurt or kill others. The most common question we get is, “What’s the point of suing a bar for what a drunk driver does?” This question misses the point of dram shop law, which doesn’t punish bars for what a drunk driver did. Instead, it punishes them for their own dangerous, unlawful behavior. Our contention has always been that by holding bars accountable, we make our highways safer. According to some new highways safety statistics, the numbers may be on our side.
An Insurance Industry Study Suggests Dram Shop Law Can Make a Big Difference
A new survey from insurer LendingTree measures road safety in every state. Included in those safety rankings are the number of DUIs per 1000 drivers. Obviously, a lot of factors go into why some states have more DUIs than others. There are cultural aspects, e.g. people in some states just drink more than people in other states. Public transportation is also better in some states than others, allowing more would-be drunk drivers to avoid getting behind the wheel in the first place. In terms of ethnic make-up, drinking culture, and size, though, California and Texas are quite similar. Both states are also similar in that they have exceptionally large, densely-populated urban centers, as well as vast sparsely populated rural areas.
Here’s where things get interesting: According to LendingTree, there are 3.5 DUIs per thousand drivers in California, while Texas has just 1 DUI per thousand drivers. That means California literally prosecutes 350% more drunk drivers than Texas. Is the difference just a matter of enforcement? Some of it may be, but that large a gap suggests something else is at play. Most people may not consider this, but we believe that “something else” may be dram shop laws.
How Can Texas Dram Shop Law Make Roads Safer?
In Texas, when a bar overserves a person who is already drunk, they face the risk of lawsuits, which can seriously impact their business. Put another way, Texas dram shop law makes it so that bars have some skin in the game when deciding whether to continue serving drunks.
By contrast, California dram shop law only imposes liability on alcohol providers when they serve a person under twenty-one. If a California bar serves a drunk who is of age, they make more money the drunker their patrons get—all while facing no downside if that drunk hurts or kills someone while intoxicated.
The dirty secret that most safety advocates don’t discuss is that most serious drunk driving accidents involve people who are far past the legal drinking limit. It’s rarely an issue of just one too many, and instead runs as much as two, three, or even four times the legal boundary. It’s bars that serve people to this degree that dram shop law targets and punishes in Texas. In California, those bars have nothing to worry about except their conscience and bad publicity.
While that’s not the whole picture, it’s hardly surprising that California ranks as the 3rd worst state for drunk driving in the LendingTree study, while Texas is 15th safest. What’s more, none of the states in the top ten for DUIs per 1,000 drivers have dram shop law as robust as those in Texas.
How Much Credit Do Dram Shop Laws Deserve for Reducing Drunk Driving?
In the interest of transparency, the same LendingTree study finds that Florida has the lowest rate of drunk drivers in the country. At the same time, Florida has some of the weakest dram shop laws in the country. At the same time, it’s difficult to believe that laws that impose consequences on bars who serve people who are already intoxicated doesn’t change culture. Working at a firm that litigates more dram shop cases than any other in Texas, we see first-hand how these cases change the behavior of bars big and small.
I’m not saying dram shop laws are a one-stop solution that “cure” drunk driving. There’s still more DWI in Texas than there should be. But given just how devastating the impacts of drunk driving are, it strikes me as a no-brainer that states would want to take an “all of the above” approach. That means having strict laws, enforcing them, and imposing real consequences on anyone, be it drinker or alcohol provider, who endangers others.
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