Feds Want Lower Blood Alcohol Level For Drunk Driving

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WhatInThe

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The National Transportation Safety Board wants the blood alcohol for being considered a drunk driver lowered from .08 to .05. MADD a big proponent. 1/3 of car accident fatalities involve duis. Hospitality industry not thrilled.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...iving-limit-should-be-lowered-to-05-ntsb-says

My guess is that down the road-pun intended there will be a zero tolerance push for intoxicated driving.
 

Anything to keep more folks from driving drunk would be okay by me. I've seen too much carnage... too many families left weeping over lost loved ones due to driving drunk.
Current BA levels would be fine if the courts would punish to the full extent of the law. Instead, too many get off with diversions and a slap on the wrist. About two years ago, we had a drunk college kid going the wrong way on a 4-lane and killed a husband and wife. The judge... someone who should never have been appointed to the bench... gave him 60 days of community service. The County Attorney appealed the sentence. That appeal has been upheld and we are waiting for a different judge to resentence the young man.

About 4 months ago, a drunk driver drove off the road and hit a tree just north of town. He walked away with only minor scratches but his 6 years old daughter was killed in the accident. He was on parole from a neighboring state for vehicular homicide in a case where he had killed a businessman while driving drunk.

Our courts have become way too lenient on drunk drivers. There should be mandatory jail time for a conviction. If someone is killed by a drunk driver, that driver should be charged with 2nd degree murder. He/she made a decision to drive while intoxicated and that decision took another life.

As I said, anything it takes to take one more drunk driver off the road would be fine with me.
 
Lowering the BAC would result in more DUI arrests, but I'd also like to see more focus on early adolescent education on substance use/abuse, as well as a whole host of other vital topics for successful living.
 

Here, it would help if the system would actually SENTENCE drunk drivers. Over and over we see repeat drunk drivers back out on the street causing crash after crash, many of them fatal. New Mexico has a terrible problem with repeat drunk drivers (one of our news sources here says the record here is a guy with 14 DUIs). Far too often, a first time DUI gets a slap on the hand. And many times repeaters are not sentenced to jail because our jails are so overloaded, the courts are backlogged, the prosecutor misses the deadline to prosecute, etc. Yanking their driver's license doesn't seem to help, they drive drunk, without a license and without insurance. Many are judgment-proof civilly and they just don't care -- they borrow cars, steal cars, drive old clunkers with stolen or nonexistent plates. It's a huge problem.

Right now our courts, governor and legislature are meeting to try to figure out how to solve the problem. One of the things they area considering is to impose criminal penalties on those who lend or allow access to a car to a person who has previous DUI convictions.
 
Anything to keep the drunks off the roads is a Plus...now, if the authorities could find some way to slow down the number of clowns playing with their cell phones while driving, perhaps we could make the roads quite a bit safer.
 
Don M. said:
Anything to keep the drunks off the roads is a Plus...now, if the authorities could find some way to slow down the number of clowns playing with their cell phones while driving, perhaps we could make the roads quite a bit safer.
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Actually on that same list of recommendations they want a ban on hands free driving as well because they still consider talking on the phone a cognitive distraction.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/01/14/ntsb-recommending-ban-on-hands-free-phones-while-driving/

So does that mean I can't talk to myself, sing or curse at stupid fracking drivers or stuff in general.
 
People that are not accustomed to drinking can catch a buzz after only one beer, one glass of wine or one cocktail. Here in PA, driving buzzed will also get a person busted, even though the person may not have registered a .08 or less. Failing a field sobriety test puts a person in the category of Driving Buzzed.

I have made my share of trips to parent's homes at 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the morning. It's not a scene that anyone wants to duplicate, but it goes on every night somewhere.
 
I agree the only way to make a difference is to get the person off the road. I've been to traffic court a few times for a simple parking ticket and can't believe the stories you hear...idjits who have been caught for like the fourteenth time driving on a revoked license. Um, judge unless you throw the book at them they are obviously determined to drive no matter what.

Add to that the problem of the restaurant chains. They want to make money on drinks so they make them huge and creative. Okay the drink we promote this month is Strawberry Zombification. One drink the size of four and it's a hit. The police can wait in the lot as they tend to do when people have parties .in these places. But I don't think people consider designated drivers in such situations. The food places just want to make a profit, not put up signs about legal limits.
 
fureverywhere said:
I agree the only way to make a difference is to get the person off the road. I've been to traffic court a few times for a simple parking ticket and can't believe the stories you hear...idjits who have been caught for like the fourteenth time driving on a revoked license. Um, judge unless you throw the book at them they are obviously determined to drive no matter what.

Add to that the problem of the restaurant chains. They want to make money on drinks so they make them huge and creative. Okay the drink we promote this month is Strawberry Zombification. One drink the size of four and it's a hit. The police can wait in the lot as they tend to do when people have parties .in these places. But I don't think people consider designated drivers in such situations. The food places just want to make a profit, not put up signs about legal limits.
Click to expand...

As interesting as many of those restaurant and bar shows can be they all but encourage excessive drinking. And the mega corporate bar, yes that is a big problem simply because they tend to be at location where they have to be driven to. Hopefully tough drunk driving laws will put the neighborhood bar back in business where one can stagger home on their feet. Maybe all these eateries/bars should pay for a barf bus like they do on St Patties day.

One of the big problem I see with the alcohol industry in general is that they are making their drinks too tasty which not only entices a younger crowd but get's a lot of people that wouldn't drink large quantities because of the bite or burn in a drink. The taste should remain as a reminder they are drinking alcohol and not a lemonade. And these so called "brew" beer aficionados has legitimized too many excessive beer drinkers or excessive beer drinking.
 
It's been 0.05 in Australia for a long time and we have random roadside breath tests too. I was breathalysed just last week.
 

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