MADD pushing .05, higher taxes
Pub Date: 2/1/2006
Is a push for a .05 BAC limit for drunk driving conviction coming to the U.S.?
Perhaps, if what is happening to the north is any clue.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Canada has been pushing new legislation to lower that country's DUI blood alcohol content threshold from .08 to .05 percent, though with some new distinctions.
The bill, introduced by Senator Marjory LeBreton, would suspend drivers licenses for 45 days and impose a $300 fine with escalating fines for subsequent violations for driving at .05 BAC but less than .08. The offense could be expunged from a driver's record if no further offenses occurred for two years.
She said, "This is a very reasonable approach to making our roads safer from impaired driving crashes. A .05 percent BAC level is the appropriate legal limit when considering the risk impaired drivers pose," according to a news release from MADD Canada.
Statistics from the U.S. indicate that low BAC drivers make up a small fraction of "alcohol related accidents."
But Sen. LeBreton said lowering the BAC threshold to .05 would "greatly reduce the number of Canadians being killed and injured by impaired drivers."
According to the Vancouver Westender, however, "there is still a large degree of opposition from safety groups and lawyers who say lowering the blood-alcohol limit won't deter chronic drunk drivers, and would only punish light and casual drinkers."
The newspaper reported Emile Therien, president of the Canada Safety Council, said, "If a 50-year-old woman who weighs 122 pounds has a glass of wine, she would be over the limit. We don't want to criminalize that type of behavior. We already have one of the toughest limits in the world at .08."
Therien added that lowering the limit is unnecessary, since police in most provinces, including British Columbia, already have the power to suspend licences at .05, and that these suspensions work since they immediately take dangerous drivers off the road. Laying criminal charges, he said, would only clog up the courts, the Westender reported.
Meanwhile, south of the border in Idaho, liquor sales and tax collections have been increasing significantly due mostly to population gains, but the state's share is capped at $8 million with revenue increases going to cities and counties.
Some legislators want the liquor taxes split 50/50 between the state and local governments.
A spokesperson for MADD is urging the state to go further by increasing the alcohol tax rates to fund increased enforcement positions and efforts. Businesses warn that tax rate hikes could drive sales down with no net gain or even losses for government treasuries.
And in Arizona, along with the help of MADD, a legislator is drafting a bill to lower that state's legal BAC limit from .08 to .05 for repeat offenders.
The bill would also allow law enforcement to arrest anyone with any trace of alcohol on suspicion of drunk driving if they had been convicted during the prior five years for "extreme DUI" which is defined as a BAC of .015 or more.
According to the Associated Press, Arizona already incarcerates 2,700 for drunk driving related offenses.
Source: ABL Leader, February, 2006, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.