National Dwi Law Pushed State’s Blood Alcohol Standard Would Be Stricter

The Clinton administration endorsed a national drunken-driving standard Thursday that would force two-thirds of the states to toughen their laws or lose federal highway money.

A bill pending in Congress would make all states set their drunken-driving thresholds at a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent. Two-thirds of the states, including Washington, use a minimum of 0.10 percent to determine when a driver is legally drunk.

Seventeen states, including Idaho, use the 0.08 percent limit. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater told a news conference that drunken-driving deaths have declined an average of 16 percent in the first five states to adopt the lower limit - Utah, Oregon, Maine, California and Vermont.

“The president is ready today to sign this legislation,” Slater said.

But some opponents contend the bill would trample on states’ rights. Industry groups also oppose it.

The American Beverage Institute said some states have rejected the lower limit because it doesn’t work and it punishes responsible social drinkers.

“When people see the facts, they will operate as most state legislatures have operated and they will reject 0.08 as meaningless,” said Rick Berman, general counsel for the institute which represents restaurant operators.

He added that eight of 10 states with the best records against drunken driving last year have the 0.10 percent blood-alcohol level as their minimum.

Under the bill, all states would have to make 0.08 percent the legal limit by 2000 or risk losing a portion of their federal highway dollars.

The change would mean the difference between five drinks - such as 12-ounce beers or 5-ounce glasses of wine - and four drinks in one hour for a 170-pound man on an empty stomach. A 137-pound woman would reach 0.08 percent after three drinks in an hour, sponsors said.

“Nothing in this bill asks people to stop drinking. It tells drunks to stop driving,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., a prime sponsor.

Last year, more than 17,100 people died in alcohol-related vehicle crashes nationwide, about 41 percent of all traffic deaths, officials estimate. Nearly 42,000 people were killed on the nation’s roadways.

Of the total deaths, about 9 percent, or more than 3,700, involved drivers with blood-alcohol levels below the 0.10 percent limit.

The bill’s advocates say studies show that up to 600 such deaths could be prevented annually with a national 0.08 percent law.

Lautenberg said he hopes to get the measure inserted into a multibillion-dollar highway funding bill working its way through Congress.

Lautenberg said he is applying the same approach used in 1984 to get a national minimum drinking age of 21. The tactic was used again in 1995 to encourage states to enact laws making it illegal for anyone under the legal drinking age to drive with measurable amounts of alcohol in their bodies.

“This isn’t about states’ rights,” said Katherine Prescott, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “This is about saving lives.”

Brenda and Randy Frazier of Westminster, Md., said they know that drivers can become significantly impaired at the 0.08 percent level.

Three days before Christmas 1995, their 9-year-old daughter, Ashley, was struck and killed as she waited for her school bus by a driver whose blood-alcohol content was near the 0.08 level, Brenda Frazier said.

“Please believe me and believe the experts - 0.08 is a lot of alcohol and a lot of impairment,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.