A decade-old benchmark for determining when a driver is legally intoxicated – the 0.08 blood-alcohol content rate – should be lowered to 0.05, reducing the amount a motorist can imbibe before being presumed to be drunk, federal safety officials said Tuesday.
Now I’m all for trying to stop these people from driving drunk, but I really don’t think this is going to stop them from driving. I think it will only allow the government to collect more money from those people who register in between .05-.08% BAC.
Lowering the rate to 0.05 would save about 500 to 800 lives every year, NTSB staff members said, and is a crucial part of the board’s attempt to eliminate drunken driving in the United States.
This statement just blows my mind. How is that going to save lives? These people are still going to drive unless they are caught getting into their car?
Well that is the obvious answer here, but you know not everyone is going to abide by that. My argue is more about that second quote. Do they really think that lowering the % that you can get a DUI will save lives? I guess these are probably the same people who think 7 rounds will save lives vs. 10 rounds in a loaded gun?
I’m thinking that the stat intends to indicate that every year, 500-800 deaths have occurred in vehicle accidents in which the driver at fault was found to have a bac of .05-.08. If those previously law abiding citizens were now prohibited from driving (assuming they are law abiding), those deaths wouldn’t occur.
It’s a good thought, but it makes it difficult to determine how much one can drink and how long to wait before driving.
Previously, .08 was used as the likely measurement for 1 beer,glass of wine, shot of liquor per hour. What would .05 be? 1 beer per 85 minutes? 3/4 of a beer per hour? It’s just not as easy as knowing 1 beer per hour.
how much additional income are the private prisons and states going to get from the state for housing these new “inmates” who get arrested? And the insurance companies for the increased rates.
Vs how much is it going to cost to arrest, charge, prosecute, etc these people.
ok, so to be cold, 800 people per year, * 2.5 million per person (this is roughly the value of a human life per the airline industry) = 2 billion dollars
I’m sure the profits off the increased people being arrested/charged will exceed that by a long shot on a per-year basis.
This isn’t a what’s best to save lives, this is a whats best to make $$ for the insurance companies, states, lawyers, private prisons, Car Interlock system companies, etc.
that of course assumes that alcohol played a significant role in the accident to begin with. since alcohol related fatalities don’t even make up the majority of vehicle fatalities it is probably safe to assume that alcohol doesn’t play a role in every accident in which alcohol is present
of course it is a self reinforcing statistic…expand the range of “alcohol related” and you will expand the number of “alcohol related fatalities”.
How many people measure their BAC after a night at the bar? ANSWER: Only some of those who are court appointed to. Maybe I have a quick beer at a bar and then hope in the car to go home. I could presumably be .05 right?
Seems like very time I see a DWI related fatality or serious injury in the news it’s someone who was .10 or higher.
I have a feeling this has a lot more to do with the insurance lobby and government wanting to increase revenue that it does with saving lives.
It’s certainly not as simple as saying, “At .05 your reaction time is X% slower so your X% more likely to crash”. At .05 you’re also well aware that you’ve had something to drink and chances are you’re driving slower, changing lanes less and all around trying to be that extra safe driver because you don’t want to get pulled over.
Also, don’t get me wrong, I’m not surprised about this at all. With all the news coming out about Benghazi, the IRS & tea party issue, also the AP reporting that the Feds tapping their phones to find out about a story that got leaked that they didn’t want to happen, the Obama administration is under some fire right now. It will probably blow over in a few days and people will forget about it.
Yeah .05 is nothing. At the end of the day, is it reasonable to consider someone with that little alcohol in them incapable of properly operating a vehicle? Well some people cant even properly operate a vehicle sober but the answer is no. Lower levels work in big cities and in other countries because public/mass transit is much more prevalent, but in suburban/rural america, this blows (no pun intended).
This is like middle school/high school stuff. Each normal size drink is .02%. Yes, the current law states 4 drinks in one hour means you are legally able to drive. To clarify, anything over the 4 drinks means you need to wait one hour per drink to be able to legally drive under the current law.
