From the 1980s to the 1990s, push The movement to lower the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit while driving has become a hot topic across the country. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Formed In 1980 and again in 2000, President Bill Clinton Signed It would establish a national blood alcohol content limit of 0.08 percent and provide federal highway funds to states on the condition that they comply with the new limit.
Drink-driving rates are much lower than they were decades ago, falling by about half since the early 1980s. According to To the National Institutes of Health. Nevertheless, the debate over the legal limit has been reignited, and there are calls to further lower the permissible BAC level while driving.
World Health Organization (WHO) 2024 Global Status Report The report on alcohol and drug use disorders drew attention by noting that most countries have raised the legal limit for blood alcohol concentration to 0.05 percent or less. The New York Times and National Geographic We quickly published an article about America’s seemingly abnormal situation when it comes to drunk driving.
Proponents of the lower limit cite laboratory and simulator studies. the study It demonstrates that alcohol impairment begins at a blood alcohol level below 0.08 and concludes that lowering the legal limit would reduce accidents and fatalities. study Using international BAC levels as a guide, they concluded that lowering the BAC level in the United States to 0.05 would reduce alcohol-related accidents by 11 percent.
Utah is Initial state The WHO has set a target of lowering the BAC level to 0.05 in 2018, making it an important case study of what could happen if more states follow suit. The WHO says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will lower the BAC level to 0.05 in 2022. study Utah’s change in law was found to have dramatically and almost immediately reduced drunk driving deaths by 20 percent.
Predictably, that’s not the whole story.
Despite being released in 2022, the NHTSA investigation found that 1 year Data after the 0.05 law was implemented: Number of drunk driving deaths in Utah in 2019 (The 0.05 law was passed in 2018 and went into effect in 2019). From 2016 to 2018, Utah averaged more than 33 drunk driving deaths per year, with 2018 being a particularly high year for fatalities, with 48 deaths. In 2019, the first year of the 0.05 law’s implementation, the number of fatalities dropped dramatically to 27, and the law was described as a great success.
But after this dramatic drop, Utah’s drunk driving fatalities have rebounded to 48. 2020There have been 61 deaths in 2021; 2022The state recorded 69 deaths.
Still, two stand out The New York Times article A report from earlier this year on higher-than-average BAC levels in the U.S. cited Utah’s 2019 reduction in drunk driving fatalities by 20 percent. Since then, there has been no mention of Utah’s drunk driving death data. National Geographic The article, and even the WHO’s highly touted report, similarly failed to acknowledge the existence of any Utah data beyond 2019, despite a publication date of 2024.
local Salt Lake Tribune Meanwhile, columnist Robert Gerke wrote: state truth:
In the four years since the law went into effect, 187 people have died in alcohol-related accidents, an increase of about 20 percent since before the law was passed and the past three years have been the highest on record.
Of course, I’m not saying the law is to blame – the drivers are – but the laws aren’t working because they aren’t targeting the real problem: people who drink and get behind the wheel well above the legal limit.
Half of all drunk drivers who cause fatal accidents are extremely intoxicated. BAC level 0.15 or higherIn contrast, among those involved in fatal accidents, BAC levels Less than 0.08 (And for those in the 0.05 to 0.07 range, that figure will be even lower and would likely be affected by the switch to the legal limit of 0.05).
The worst offenders of drunk driving are: Repeat offender Some people seem completely unaffected by the legal limit. About 30% of people arrested for drunk driving in Utah have been arrested for drunk driving before, and 10% have been arrested more than once. This is a political reality that most people don’t want to deal with. The problem isn’t the couple who has a couple of glasses of wine with dinner. It’s drunk drivers who are well over the legal limit, and often repeat offenders, who are wreaking havoc on America’s roads. In fact, even MADD founder Candace Lightner opposes the proposal. state “It’s unrealistic to run around trying to arrest everyone for 0.05.”
Those in favor of lowering the legal limit might argue that even if one life is saved by lowering blood alcohol levels, it is worth whatever the cost would be in increased DUI arrests, but even if this logic were adopted, penalties for those in the .05 to .07 range could at least be reduced, or violations could be changed to civil rather than criminal penalties.
No one wants to see more drunk driving deaths in America, but ignoring the data won’t reduce the numbers.
