NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Restricting the availability of alcohol could significantly cut the rate of fatal car accidents in US urban areas, researchers report.

``As the strictness of a variety of alcohol regulations increase, the rate of alcohol-related traffic fatalities tends to decrease,'' Dr. Deborah A. Cohen, an associate professor of public health and preventive medicine at Louisiana State University in New Orleans, told Reuters Health.

Cohen, who is also a scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research institute in Santa Monica, California, led the new study. She and her colleagues tracked traffic-related fatalities from 97 cities in 38 states from 1995 through 1997 using data provided by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration.

The investigators found that more than 44% of all urban car crashes during that time period involved alcohol. In general, cities that had stricter regulations on access to alcohol and stiffer penalties for violations had lower alcohol-related fatality rates than cities with looser laws, the researchers report in the February issue of Preventive Medicine.

Cities' alcohol regulations included such things as limiting the number of liquor licenses in a community, imposing harsher penalties for driving under the influence, publicizing drunk drivers in the local newspaper and conducting sobriety checkpoints.

Cohen's team found that of 20 possible regulations, cities that had fewer than nine had a 46% higher rate of alcohol-related traffic accidents than cities with 15 or more of these regulations.

They also found that the regulations surrounding beer consumption were more likely to affect car crashes than regulations on wine and hard liquor--possibly, the authors note, because beer is often consumed in conjunction with outdoor activities, while wine is consumed at home with dinner.

``Probably, we're not consuming beer at the appropriate time and place,'' she noted. ``Beer is advertised as the drink to have when you're out and about, and drinking in and around cars is more risky than if you just stay home and drink.''

The researchers did not find any association between imposing taxes on alcohol and reduced fatalities.

``We didn't find any relationship with taxes, because there's hardly any taxes on alcohol at all,'' Cohen said. ``The most people pay is a penny or two. I think that could be a good thing to try, although we didn't find anything to support it.''

However, Cohen noted that overall, the research shows that stricter laws on the accessibility of alcohol--such as banning drinking in cars and public places--could cut up to 400 deaths annually in the US.

``I would recommend each city look at their practices and try to strengthen them,'' she said. ``The best test is to make changes and see what happens over the long term.''

SOURCE: Preventive Medicine 2002;34.

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