Question of the week: The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently called for states to lower blood-alcohol limits from .08 to .05. Do you agree that such a move is an effective way to reduce accidents and deaths on our roads? Are there better ways to curb impaired driving in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama?
The NTSB’s heart is in the right place (whatever heart a huge federal bureaucracy can have) with its recommendation that states reduce their blood alcohol limits from .08 to .05. After all, it wants to prevent injuries and deaths related to drunken driving. But the push to lower the limits is a step too far.
Drivers whose blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) is higher than .01 but lower than .08 account for only 5 percent of all highway deaths. Further, evidence is shaky about whether driving ability or awareness is significantly reduced for a driver with a BAC of between .05 and .08.
Alcohol-related driving accidents are caused largely by drivers with BAC levels exceeding .1. The NTSB’s call to lower BAC standards, however, does nothing to get problem drinkers, or those with outrageous blood alcohol levels, off the road. Instead, it launches a witch hunt against casual drinkers who have two glasses of wine at dinner or a couple of beers at a happy hour and are perfectly capable of driving safely.
The steps taken to improve highway safety in recent decades are nothing to ignore.