Lower Limit Cuts Carnage On Idaho Highways

So far, Idaho’s tougher drunken driving law is doing just what its supporters promised - reducing deaths and injuries from alcohol-related accidents.

However, the lower blood-alcohol level used to determine drunkeness also has led to more arrests in North Idaho, a trend feared by overloaded prosecutors.

“If we’re seeing less fatalities and injuries, we’re halfway where we wanted to be,” said state Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, who argued for the new law in the Senate. “I’m glad we did it.”

Idaho is one of 15 states that has dropped the blood-alcohol level that determines drunken driving from .10 percent to .08. This year, Washington is poised to consider a similar move.

Supporters of the change in Idaho argued that it would lead to fewer arrests and convictions by persuading more people not to risk drinking and driving.

“Certainly the intent of changing the law was not to create more citations or more arrests,” Riggs said. “I can see where that would happen. But hopefully, that will be just a short-lived problem … as the public becomes more aware.”

Gail Johnson, Boise legislative liaison for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said she was thrilled to hear of the drop in deaths and injuries.

According to figures from the Idaho Transportation Department Office of Highway Safety, alcohol-related traffic deaths dropped 14 percent in the five months the new law has been in effect, compared to the same period a year earlier. Injuries dropped 25 percent.

“That’s all we wanted to see out of any of our efforts we do at the Legislature - saving lives,” Johnson said. “Certainly not being able to arrest more people. It’s the preventative part of the equation that makes us happy. That’s what we work for.”

Though North Idaho arrest numbers are up and statewide Idaho State Police drunken driving arrests soared 24 percent over the same period a year earlier, authorities credit increased emphasis on patrols more than the new law.

Col. Ed Strickfaden, ISP superintendent, said, “We’ve continued to place a good deal of emphasis in our enforcement on taking off of the highway those people that choose to drive drunk. … I think it has more to do with the effort we’ve put towards it than the .08 law itself.”

Arrest numbers from local police and sheriff’s departments across the state are still being tallied, but preliminary statewide numbers appear to show little increase.

North Idaho DUI arrests, counting both local police and sheriff’s departments and ISP arrests, are up 18 percent for the first three months the law has been in effect, compared to the same months the previous year.

According to the Idaho Supreme Court, misdemeanor DUI filings across the state from July to November this year were actually down 1 percent from the same period a year earlier.

“At least in terms of the cases coming into the court system, we’re not seeing any substantive increase in DUI caseload,” said John Peay, director of information systems for the Supreme Court.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas, however, said the law has had an impact.

Douglas said some prosecutors worried that lowering the drunken-driving level would “open the floodgates” and overload the court system with DUI cases, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, the main effect has been the strengthening of cases previously considered marginal, because alcohol testing equipment can have a 10 percent margin of error.

“We’re seeing a lot more guilty pleas for the .10, which was the former limit,” Douglas said. “What formerly were marginal cases, .10, .11, are certainly now classified as stronger cases.”

He added, “Most of the people who are stopped and arrested for DUI are considerably over .08.”

Johnson said she’s been hearing that many people are unsure of what it takes to get them to the .08 level.

“I’ve just heard people saying they have to get a designated driver, because who knows what gets them to .08.”

Tom Robb, owner of the Iron Horse in Coeur d’Alene, said he’s been seeing that trend for some time, regardless of the law. “I don’t think the zero-8 had anything really to do with it,” Robb said. “We’ve noticed people are a lot more responsible drinkers in the last 10 years than possibly they were before that.”

Riggs, an emergency room physician, said an average 170-pound male would reach .08 by drinking four drinks in an hour. But that can vary.

“If you’re going to drive, it’s best to have no drinks,” he said. “But with what we’re talking about, one or two drinks, most people are still going to be safe. … But if you start getting up into three or four, don’t drive. Make sure someone else is driving, or wait a couple of hours.”

Said Douglas, “People are impaired at a level much under .10, and in those states in which they have a .08 threshold it has been a deterrent, it has saved lives. It has kept people from getting behind the wheel who’ve had even one drink. That’s why we supported it. It’s a good bill.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: The impact of Idaho’s new DUI law