NTSB Pushes For Lower DUI Limit
The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) has recommended that states begin cutting their threshold for drunk driving by almost half in an effort to reduce highway deaths as a result of DUI. The NTSB has cited a report that states more than 100 countries have already reduced the legal drinking limit to .05% from .08% that attributed to approximately fifty percent less traffic deaths as a result of drunk driving over a span of 10 years. Women weighing less than 120 pounds can reach .05% after just one drink, while men weighing less than 160 can reach .05% after two drinks.
Of the 30,000 people killed on U.S. highways each year, one third of those deaths are a result of drunk driving. NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said, “Our goal is to get to zero deaths because each alcohol-impaired death is preventable. Alcohol-impaired deaths are not accidents, they are crimes. They can and should be prevented. The tools exist. What is needed is the will“. Jonathan Adkins, an official with the Governors Highway Safety Association, said that getting the blood alcohol content (BAC) threshold lowered to .08% was difficult and that the prospect of lowering it again would most likely be met with strong resistance. Adkins also said that “The focus in the states is on high (blood alcohol content) offenders as well as repeat offenders. We expect industry will also be very vocal about keeping the limit at .08“.
The NTSB has also pushed the auto industry and safety administration to increase their research into a technology in all cars that could detect whether a driver has an elevated BAC without the use of ignition interlock devices, which require the driver to blow into a machine before the vehicle will start. The board has also recommended passive alcohol devices that can be used in flashlights or in small cell phone like devices that would alert an officer if the driver in close proximity to them is intoxicated. Those technologies may be years away from implementation but the NTSB believes the use of those devices would help to reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road. Since the legal alcohol threshold was reduced to .08% in 1982, the number of drunk driving deaths has fallen from 18,000 to 10,000.
If you have been arrested for driving drunk, contact an experienced and skilled Texas DUI attorney for legal assistance.
