The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended all
states lower the legal blood-alcohol content (BAC) from 0.08 to 0.05.
The NTSB
offers two arguments. One, statistics show that people with a BAC of 0.05
percent are 38 percent more likely to be involved in a crash than those who
have not been drinking. People with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent are
169 percent more likely.
Second, the
standard in most of the industrialized world is 0.05 percent. The blood-alcohol
level was reduced to 0.08 in the all states. Wyoming switched to 0.08 percent only
after Congress enacted legislation that withheld highway construction money
from states that didn’t adopt that standard.
Given the make-up
of the Congress, it’s unlikely they would enact such coercive measures. Given
the inclinations of the Wyoming legislature, it wouldn’t matter if Congress did.
The real question is whether further reducing the legal limit is the best way
to reduce alcohol related highway deaths. Poignantly, even a representative of
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the most outspoken organization seeking a
reduction in drunk driving, was lukewarm to the idea.
He told the press
the 0.05 proposal “was the safety board’s (way of) trying to focus on a group
of people who are more social drinkers, who haven’t been targeted in a while.” He
said that while MADD would not oppose the change it would pursue other
remedies.
That’s exactly
what legislators should do. If the states don’t do a better job of taking
drunks off the road, support for the NTSB proposal will only increase.
Drunk driving
remains a problem that cannot be solved by constantly increasing the penalties.
Harsher sentences have never been shown to cure the addiction behind nearly all
the arrests and serious accidents. But social drinkers with .05 blood alcohol
content aren’t the problem.
A recent survey
of DUI arrests for in Wyoming makes that case. The average BAC reported for persons arrested for driving under the influence
was 0.1529, more than 3 times the NTSB recommendation.
Forty-five percent of those persons arrested for driving under the influence had an average blood
alcohol content above 0.16, the average BAC reported for 404 traffic crashes that involved
alcohol was 0.1628. (“Wyoming
Alcohol
Use Issues Survey-2006 www.uwyo.edu/wysac)
A 2012
University of Wyoming survey, indicated
55% felt that roadside sobriety checkpoints would be very or somewhat effective
in reducing drinking and
driving in their communities, over two-thirds (68.6%) of Wyoming
residents say they would support (strongly or somewhat support) a
tax increase in this case, and 64.3% prohibit selling or serving alcohol to
someone who is obviously intoxicated.
Wyoming
law currently gives civil immunity to bars that sell more booze to already
intoxicated customers even when those customer stagger out the door, drive away
and kill innocent people while driving intoxicated. Repeal of that immunity
would be a powerful disincentive to serve customers to the point of
intoxication.
Finally,
the state should require all courts handling DUI cases to use those strategies
proven to work in Laramie County’s DUI Court. By requiring treatment coupled
with frequent testing, intense supervision, ignition lock devices and other
monitoring, the Laramie County DUI Court has proved successful in changing the
lives of many people who have a long string of DUI arrests and other risky,
alcohol related behaviors.
Budget
cuts threaten the future of these programs but they have a proven record,
demonstrating outcomes making them a far more effective alternative to reducing
drunk driving than either increasing the length of sentences or reducing the
blood alcohol content level.
Instead
of targeting social drinkers or further adding years to mandatory sentences,
legislators should support research-based strategies with proven results.
