© 2005 Behavioral Health Research Institute of the Southwest
612 Encino Place NE / Albuquerque, NM 87102 / 505.244.3099 / www.bhrcs.org

“Sunday Sales”:
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Project Summary:

Historically, state law has barred sales of package alcohol in New Mexico. In 1995, the liquor industry successfully convinced the State Legislature and Governor Gary Johnson to amend the law to allow package liquor sales on Sunday. The new law took effect in mid-June, 1995, and outlets began offering liquor on Sunday immediately.

The goal of the proposed research is to estimate the effects of the repeal of the Sunday package alcohol sales prohibition in New Mexico on alcohol-related motor vehicle crash and crash fatality rates. The study will estimate these effects by socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic components. Study results will be used to estimate the number of alcohol-related crashes and crash fatalities had the ban on Sunday package alcohol sales not been repealed in 1995.

Project scientists will examine computerized databases of New Mexico police crash reports that assign date, time of day, location, injuries and fatalities, and alcohol involvement to all motor-vehicle accidents occurring between 1990 and 2000, inclusive. These data will be subjected to statistical modeling, including geostatistical and time-series analyses to determine changes in alcohol-related crash and crash fatality rates before and after the legalization of Sunday package alcohol sales in 1995 by time, day, and local socio-demographic characteristics.