Transportation Equity Act: Adopting a Statewide Open Container Law in Missouri

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 1,232 fatal vehicle crashes occurredin 2003 on Missouri's highways. Approximately 41 percent of these fatalities involved alcohol. These incidents cost Missouri $4.74 billion in lost productivity, medical costs, property damage, and other direct expenditures. Improvements in traffic safety are reflected in a change in fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Missouri's alcohol-related fatality rate was 0.74 in 2003, compared to the national average of 0.59. The lowest rate was Utah at 0.19 and highest was Montana at 1.18 (Figure 1). Though the alcohol related fatality rate has decreased (Figure 2), some suggest that adopting a statewide open container law would further reduce the traffic fatality rate in Missouri

Missouri State and Local Open Container Laws

In 1998, Congress and the President passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which aimed to encourage states to enact and enforce an open container law that prohibits possession of any open alcoholic beverage container and the consumption of any alcoholic beverage by both the driver and passenger (see Report 29-2005 for more detail). The current Missouri open container law applies only to the driver, making Missouri one of thirteen states (AK, AR, CO, CT, DE, IN, MO, MS, MT, TN, VA, WV, WY) that allow passengers to drink, despite TEA-21. An increasing number of Missouri municipalities, however, are adopting ordinances that apply to the passenger. Current state legislation, if passed, would override local open container ordinances to allow open wine containers to be transported. This may indicate a possible disconnect between open container law preference at the local and state levels in Missouri