NTSB recommends lowering blood alcohol level that constitutes drunk driving

[Ralph Wiggum]

The National Transportation Safety Board voted to recommend to states that they lower the blood-alcohol content that constitutes drunk driving.  Currently, all 50 states have set a BAC level of .08, reflecting the percentage of alcohol, by volume, in the blood. If a driver is found to have a BAC level of .08 or above, he or she is subject to arrest and prosecution.
 
The NTSB recommends dropping that to a BAC level of .05.  Each year, nearly 10,000 people die in alcohol-related traffic accidents and 170,000 are injured. While that’s a big improvement from the 20,000 who died in alcohol-related accidents 30 years ago, it remains a consistent threat to public safety.

Studies show that each year, roughly 4 million people admit to driving while under the influence of alcohol.  The United States, Canada and Iraq are among a small handful of countries that have set the BAC level at .08. Most countries in Europe, including Russia, most of South America and Australia, have set BAC levels at .05 to constitute drunken driving.

More at LINK

[Undies]

Yes!  We need a more broad reason to arrest peaceful people, control them, and extort money from them.  Let's make driving after sniffing a cork a felony!

[DefiantSix]

Give them an inch.

Continue to acquiesce to this Nanny Statism, and the day is not far on the horizon when they will demand that the threshold for "impairment" be set to 0.000.

[Ptarmigan]

How about making drunk drivers who kill people a harsher crime, perhaps death penalty.

[Rebel]

.05? That's like 2 beers at a meal. I hope GA tells them to go **** themselves.

[FlaGator]

Yes!  We need a more broad reason to arrest peaceful people, control them, and extort money from them.  Let's make driving after sniffing a cork a felony!

Exactly my friend! This will do nothing more that increase the jail population and do absolutely nothing to reduce DUI related accidents and fatalities.

[JohnnyReb]

If .05 or less at any time and in anything he's driving is good enough for truck drivers, why not everyone else on the road?

[thundley4]

Illinois allows police to drive under the influence.  There is no state law regarding police on duty and drinking as long as they are under .08.  They have left it up to individual communities.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The United States, Canada and Iraq are among a small handful of countries that have set the BAC level at .08. Most countries in Europe, including Russia, most of South America and Australia, have set BAC levels at .05 to constitute drunken driving.

And look how well that works in Russia, for instance.

 

[Eupher]

NTSB can recommend 0.0% BAC and that ain't gonna stop drunks from driving.

East Germany, when it was a nation, had such a draconian law. Folks still drove drunk, though they wound up in the gulag afterwards. [/sarc]

Sarcasm aside, using East Germany as a bit of a focal point for discussion, this next bit is interesting:

The potential impact of this new law on the former East Germany would be difficult to assess. Certainly classical deterrence theory would suggest that the increased liberalization of the law should promote a reduced deterrent effect in eastern Germany. Thus one would anticipate that the increased liberalization of the law should promote a reduced deterrent effect in eastern Germany leading to increases in alcohol-related crashes. Yet, Ross, Klette and McCleary (1984, 1992) have shown that in Scandinavia, recent trends towards liberalization and rationalization of the drinking driving laws did not seem to find reduced deterrence. The latest analysis found that the elimination of the mandatory jail sentence actually had beneficial effects on the traffic death rates in both Norway and Sweden (Ross, Klette and McCleary, 1992).

Alcohol impairs judgment.

When some people start drinking, their normal good sense can go right out the window.

But in most cases, people will consider the consequences beforehand and make arrangements for a designated driver, if drinking is to be done.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/misc/driving/s15p4.htm

[redwhit]

This is one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time, and I say that as an alcoholic (7 years sober) who happens to be an addiction counselor.

This will in no way, shape, or form keep people from driving while impaired, it will just further clog the justice system when quota time comes around.  If we agree that addiction is a disease, how about we treat it like one instead of trying to legislate it away.  Give the addict the treatment necessary to get the disease into remission and charge the offender for the crimes committed that harmed life and property.

All this law will do is up the number of repeat offenders on the state rolls.  Here in Massachusetts we have over 20,000 picked up last year with 3 DUIs.

On a more positive note, Ted Kennedy is still sober.

[thundley4]

Most accidents involving alcohol are with people well above the legal limit.   This is mostly a revenue enhancement scheme for states and local communities, also for the treatment centers that donate to state politicians.

[DefiantSix]

Most accidents involving alcohol are with people well above the legal limit.   This is mostly a revenue enhancement scheme for states and local communities, also for the treatment centers that donate to state politicians.

Considering that this was stated directly in black and white in the NTSB proposal paper...

Hell, even the DUmbshits at the DUmp picked up on it.

(for the 'tards running the NTSB, not you, T-man.)