Legal BAC Limit Of 0.05 Proposed By U.S. Safety Board
If this were to come to pass and was retroactively applied to the ASU student from this story that registered a 0.47, and was dropped off at the hospital by his boys with a sticky note attached to him, he would have been clocked at 9.4 times the legal BAC limit. The legal threshold is currently 0.08, so either way you slice it, that guy was hammered drunk, but thankfully he didn’t end up behind the wheel of a car.
The dilemma is, of course, which alcohol content level should be the legal determining point of intoxication.
From CNN:
The National Transportation Safety Board recommended that all 50 states lower the threshold to 0.05. The idea is part of a safety board initiative to eliminate drunk driving, which accounts for about a third of all road deaths.
[…]
Hersman said progress has been made over the years to reduce drunk driving, including government policies, tougher law enforcement and stepped up advocacy. But she said too many people are still dying on America’s roads in alcohol-related crashes.
Lowering the rate to 0.05 would save about 500 to 800 lives every year, the safety board said.
I’m not too concerned with how intoxication is defined, but if the number of drunk driving accidents can be minimized by stricter laws, I’m all for a lowered BAC threshold.
[via CNN]
It’s alllll about the money. They don’t want to “save lives”… they want that sweet sweet judicial system money. Those big DUI fines and fees are helpful to governments.
13 years ago at 1:26 pmand Dorn, you’re misunderstanding. It will not reduce the amount of drunk driving accidents, it will actually increase the number of “drunk driving accidents”… The only difference will be what the government defines as drunk driving, not the level of inebriation or impairment of the individual.
13 years ago at 1:28 pmI don’t see the logic here, the people who drive with a BAC between .05 and .08 are hardly the ones to be worried about. This is just gonna fuck over a lot of people who were actually trying to be responsible.
13 years ago at 2:49 pmFun fact: I remember reading alcohol actually acts as a stimulant until about .06 BAC, after which it turns into what some would call a “depressant”/
13 years ago at 6:06 pmHow many drinks would actually take to achieve this level? Three…two? This is retarded. I assume your agreement, Dorn, was sarcasm.
13 years ago at 9:38 pmI’m getting linked here by a TFM Terms and Conditions link. Am I the only one who finds that hilarious?
13 years ago at 2:34 pm