When you see younger people starting to drink, if they combine that with driving it results in a lot of fatalities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that raising the drinking age to 21 saves about 800 lives a year. In fact, most public health groups — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Assn. — favor keeping the drinking age at 21. The research also shows that if a youth starts drinking alcohol before age 14, their chances of becoming addicted or having an alcohol-related crash or getting into a fight increases, so it's very critical to delay that onset of drinking. Kids still experiment, but the age-21 limit does delay the onset of drinking somewhat. When you start