Crash data was collected from the Department of Transportation and a global positioning system (GPS) was used to determine the exact latitude and longitude of each crash. Matchmaker 2000 Software was used to determine the latitude and longitude coordinates of 207 licenced alcohol retailers in Gwinnet County (alcohol retail information came from the county Business Licence database). Using ArcInfo GIS, the distances between crashes and the nearest licenced premise was determined. 0.5 mile buffers around each premise were also created with ArcInfo to determine the distribution of crashes around each alcohol retailer.

Analysis showed that alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes were not clustered within the 0.5 mile buffer zones. Instead, the data showed that crashes were clusterd at highway intersections.

This study's results, that the distance from a licenced premise is not a predictor of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, was suprising to the researchers. The ability of GIS to measure exact distance strengthed the study, and the suprising results demonstrate the utility of GIS to answer questions about alcohol-related problems with more precision than other methods.