Should we lower the blood alcohol level for driving? Interesting piece about that by Marcus Kowal, a mixed martial arts fighter whose infant son was killed by a drunk driver (a 72-year-old woman, in the middle of the day, hit the baby’s stroller in crosswalk). He advocates lowering the threshold.
In every state, the “legally drunk” blood alcohol level is .08. A few decades ago, the standard was .1. Lowering it reduced the alcohol-related fatality rate by 10%. Kowals argues for lowering it to .05, the standard in several European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands–where, though people drink more alcohol per capita than Americans, the traffic fatality is much lower.
He says many studies show that lowering the threshold would deter many people from driving while intoxicated. Utah and Washington states have considered lowering it to .05, but lobbyists for the beverage and hospitality industries swung into action. I don’t know if this is a Democrat or Republican issue. I suppose one or the other sides with the lobbyists.
Kowal mentions his home country, Sweden, where the limit is .02. DUIs bring harsh punishments. However, he said, drunk driving carries a strong stigma in Sweden–it’s not socially acceptable. He compared it to waving a loaded firearm in a grocery store–just not something you do. He said Americans are far too tolerant of drunk driving, sometimes treating it almost as a right of passage (think of the numerous celebrities who have DUIs, but have faced almost no consequences). How do we create a culture where DUIs are not socially acceptable?
Kowal also said the average person drives drunk 80 times before their first crash or arrest. That seems high, and I don’t know how such a number is determined. But if the number was just 10 times, that would still be very disturbing.
The victims of drunk driving are always innocent–persons driving to the store, cruising on a highway, walking along a street…or a baby in a stroller. Just as it bothers me that untrained people are walking around in public with loaded firearms, it bothers me to know that I drive the same roads with people who are legally impaired. I’d be in favor of lowering the threshold.
