Thirty years have passed since New York’s drinking age was raised to 21 and, since then, alcohol-related traffic fatalities have decreased by 60 percent, according to the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research.

With last week marking the 30th anniversary of the policy change, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a media release saying the 1985 legislation has saved “countless lives” and was “a victory for common sense.”

However, according to several local officials, the decrease in traffic fatalities can only be partially attributed to the raising of the drinking age. Area residents also weighed in on the issue, with several saying the policy change was a negative thing and caused a culture of “sneaking around” to consume alcohol.

Regardless of opinion, the number of alcohol-related fatalities in police-reported motor vehicle crashes has dropped steadily from 750 in 1984 to 292 in 2014, according to the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, a nonprofit, university-based research center dedicated to improving highway safety.

Julie Dostal, executive director at LEAF Council on Alcoholism & Addictions in Oneonta, New York, said she believes raising the drinking age was a good decision but is only one piece of the puzzle.

“That does have a great deal to do with it,” Dostal said, “because underage individuals are most likely to engage in the risky behaviors that could cause accidents. But I think the decline in fatalities is thanks to other factors, as well.”

Those other factors, Dostal said, include safer cars, “really great” law enforcement partners who take their jobs seriously and “a lot more education.”

“Almost every single person now knows you don’t drive drunk,” Dostal said. “It’s just something you don’t do. Police used to follow people home when they were drinking or take them home and let them come pick up their car later on. That has all changed over the last 20 years or so.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, youths who drink alcohol are more likely to experience alcohol-related car crashes and other unintentional injuries; school, social, legal and physical problems; abuse of other drugs; and death from alcohol poisoning.

Dostal said she remembers many young people being “extremely upset” when former governor Mario Cuomo signed the 1985 legislation raising the drinking age to 21.

“Of course I had a very different perspective back then,” Dostal said. “As I’ve gotten a little older and a little wiser, especially as I understand the brain science behind it, alcohol mixed with young brains is a really, really bad mixture. And trying to delay the onset of drinking just makes sense from a human development standpoint.”

Renee Davis, a bartender from Oneonta, said she remembers when the law was changed. She didn’t agree with it then and she feels the same way now, she said.

“It won’t ever change but it should,” Davis said. “Kids are going overseas and dying but they can’t have a cocktail. Then they return from war and are so affected by it they sometimes end up turning to alcohol.”

Even though the law changed, there will always be people younger than 21 who “sneak around” and find ways to drink, Davis and others said.

“When you’re told you can’t do something, it makes you want to do it all the more,” said Darin Ives, a contractor from Worcester, New York. Ives said he was in the military and thinks service men and women should be exempt from the rule. They risk their lives but aren’t allowed to have a drink, he said.

Others said they feel the change was a positive one.

“You’re not necessary responsible at age 18,” said David Weymouth, an area retiree. “People argue that if you can enlist, you should be able to drink but you don’t think when you’re drinking. And at 18 you’re not mature enough to handle that.”

Josh Foerster, a young man from Morris, said he also thinks it was a good decision.

“When you’re 18, you’ve only been driving for two years,” Foerster said. “Making it 21 gives you time to mature.”

Oneonta Police Chief Dennis Nayor said the decline in alcohol-related fatalities cannot be attributed to any one thing. Increased enforcement, education and stricter laws have all contributed, he said.

“I think it’s a multifaceted issue,” Nayor said. “I’m sure raising the drinking age has been another tool that’s helped the cause, but there have been a lot of other things that have helped as well, such as good strong DWI enforcement, publicity toward the perils of drinking and driving, and educating people about it.”

Nayor said DWIs seemed “a lot more prevalent” in the area when he was a young officer. Because of aggressive enforcement and education, he’s seeing less of them than before, he said.

“We won’t ever get to the point where we’ll totally eradicate the problem,” Nayor said. “But with DARE programs in school and many alternate forms of transportation such as buses and taxis, people know they shouldn’t drink and drive and have a plethora of other options.”

In 2014, legislation was passed imposing a class D felony charge and a fine of up to $10,000 on drivers convicted of DWI or DWAI three or more times within 15 years, according to the media release from Cuomo’s office. Collaborative efforts between state agencies, the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and its partners, as well as highway and traffic safety education and enforcement initiatives have also helped contribute to the continued decrease.

Nayor said it’s not as easy to get away with fake IDs anymore, either. This past summer, the Department of Motor Vehicles partnered with state and local law enforcement to make more than 130 arrests and confiscate more than 60 fake IDs at concerts throughout the state as part of Operation Prevent, a year-round DMV initiative focused on preventing underage drinking.

According to Dostal, there will always be people who push to try to lower the drinking age back to 18.

“A lot of people want to blame the fact that students binge drink on the raising of the drinking age,” Dostal said. “There are all kinds of emotional arguments, but the facts show that 21 is a smart strategy from both a public safety and public health standpoint.”