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The lower the level of tolerance the better. Too many people's lives are terribly altered and there is too much death due to driving under the influence while impaired. This won't stop a lot of people from driving while impaired, but will save more lives while making it easier to convict.

Ironically, this was TW's honeymoon speech...

Continually lowering it is getting a little odd.

I dislike drunk driving, it's one of the reasons I've always lived in the city, so I can walk from bar to bar until I fall over.
But the limit should be a BAC level at which actual driving is impaired.... not simply lowered for funsies.

That would be the problem. If they lower the limit enough, then even someone who's having a "responsible" number of drinks (1/hr or whatever the number is) could theoretically be hauled in on a DUI, simply based on BAC.

Reasonable suspicion/probable cause is not based on B.A.C. It is based on the conduct of the driver. That is, the driver has to do something legitimately wrong to be pulled over. The stop cannot lawfully be pretextual or merely based on a hunch e.g. that a driver left a bar parking lot and might be driving under the influence.

Driving after drinking is not illegal. Driving while one's faculties are impaired is. If a cop pulls someone over, for let's say a broken tail light and smells alcohol on the driver's breath and the driver admits having consumed alcohol, the cop now has probable cause to complete a road side sobriety test or make the driver blow (depending on that state's law). If the driver passes, he or she is free to leave. If he she fails, he or she is arrested. Blowing or blood draw showing above the limit merely shifts the burden of proof to the driver. That is, the driver is presumed rebuttably guilty under the law- the driver must prove his or her innocence.

Now, let's say there is a DUI/DWI road-block where drivers are instructed to blow. If a driver blows above the limit, he or she is presumed driving while under the influence and is subject to arrest....

rfenst I agree with everything you said but..... watch what happens. If you lower this much more the po-po will have little restraint. .08 is about right. Unleash the crackin.

May as well make it zero, and anyone seen leaving a pub alone (thus driving) is likely guilty. Some people are ok with that. I'm not. A nanny state isn't of interest to me.

we should also outlaw all cars on the road that were built without anti lock brakes etc. clearly lives would be saved. ask any actuary there are calculations for everything. somethings things just "are". you can't legislate life.

This in reality becomes a money grab.

come to think about it smoking in the car should go too. too distracting. gaurenteed there is a calculation on that..... by whomever is pushing that agenda.


I'm just tired of more and more government intervention. I'm glad I grew up when I did instead of now.

what's the saying about there being lies, damn lies and statistics?

think of how many lives can be saved by removing radios out of cars or at least legislating volume limits.

This is why you will never get convicted based solely on a field breathalyzer test.

0.05 is too low. Depending on body size, one mixed drink could easily put you over 0.08. Just my opinion though.

rfenst I respect your opinion. At least you come out and say it... you think it should be at or near 0. setting an arbitrary number and ratchiting it down over time is pure politics. get in the door and keep pushin. thats why people are so freaked out about gun control etc. It's always just the beginning of something more restrictive.

fatigue and in car distractions are also choices.

interesting quote from that link

""A little over a decade ago, we lowered our legal limit from 0.1 percent after groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving assured the country that, based on all the science, 0.08 BAC was absolutely, unequivocally where the legal threshold should be set for drunk driving. Has the science changed? Or have anti-alcohol activists simply set their sights on a new goal?" Longwell asked."


politics.... plain and simple

Agreed.

Yeah because having the .08% has stopped drunk drivers.......


Revenue under the guise of caring safety measures.


One time I left a local bar, I had consumed quite a few beers (6 hours earlier). I was not impared. At the edge of the lot I looked left & right before entering the road and a police cruiser was going my way. Let him pass and pulled out. At the light he ran a red light turning right without stopping (blind as a building there blocks vision). When the light turned green I also turned right and he was stopped on the train tracks in the right lane. Well, it's not legal to pass on train tracks so I waited. And waited. Probably 2 minutes. Then he finally moved, and at the first road pulled over.

I knew what he was doing. So I turned right at the next road then drove around like a labrynth (doing the speed limit and obeying traffic signals). He finally got me and was pissed, claimed that I was elueding and avoiding arrest. I asked him if he had his lights on while in my vision, uhhhhh well no.....

I then got the most convoluted field sobriety test you could imagine, combining the normal tests at the same time (i.e. touching my nose while standing on one foot with my eyes closed). The whole time the two were playing good cop bad cop "tell me how many you REALLY had and I'll tell him to take it easy". Searched my truck without permission and got pissed when I told him what he would find before he found it.

Adter all this he asked if I had a weapon on me. Mind you I've had one if the two next to me this whole time. I said yes I have a folding pocket knife in my right pocket. They drew guns to the low position! I said easy there you asked!

Final verdict was they couldn't prove I was drunk but asked me to walk the TWO BLOCKS to my house. Whatever. Saw 5 cruisers in two blocks!

this is why I have a fully stocked Bar here at my house..

I just have to drive to my room and pass out,,,


wheel,

Many years ago, a cop one town over was busted by the County in a sting operation for using fake breathalyzer results. The guy had eighty nine arrests in just one year. He claimed he was just following township official's orders, but he's the only one who went to jail. A judge then granted new trials for every one of his convictions. I wonder how many innocent folk had their lives ruined by this pig?

Bucky, not only are there some bad cops, but judges too. 5-6 years ago, I got a summons from NY City for failure to pay a parking ticket. In my entire life, I've never driven in NY City. I looked the ticket up online, and found they had ticketed a white cargo van. My vehicle was a dark gray pickup truck. I made a copy of my registration, showing that it was for a dark gray pickup truck, and entered an innocent plea by mail, including a letter describing their mistake. I figured that was the end of that.

A couple weeks later, I got a letter from NY City, stating that "wrong vehicle color" was not a justifiable defense in NY City, the judge had found me guilty, and I was required to pay the fine plus court costs. Never mind that I made it very clear in the letter that they had ticketed a cargo van, and I owned a pickup truck.

If I wanted to appeal the judge's decision, I would have to make a court date, take off from work, drive 3 hours to NY City, pay parking, and sit in court all day. They knew they had me by the balls. I was ready to ignore the conviction, until a lawyer friend told me that Jersey and NY had a reciprocal agreement, and if I didn't pay the fine, NJ wouldn't renew my vehicle registration until I did. In hind site, I should have gone to the local TV stations and made a public stink, but instead, I submitted to their black mail, and paid the fine.

a few years ago my daughter had a similar situation. she owned a honda but different color, was told she got tagged parking next to a hydrant in NYC. Lawyer friend made some calls, was told it must be paid in order to appeal. He subsequently found out that there was a wide ranging scam being run by NYC P.D./traffic dept on neighboring states (we are in MA) and that it was a lost cause. They were looking up registration numbers and writing fake tickets all over town, guessing the color of vehicles. Cute.

Gene and Robert are correct though...drinking and driving is a horrendous problem.

Whatever the limit is...idiots are still going to drive impaired (based on their individual physiology)

That is why i NEVER consume alcohol if I know I might need to drive

Same here. Drink as much as you want, just don't get behind the wheel. Wish others would see it he same way.

You people are going to love it when police departments have unmanned aerial vehicles.

Greedy bastid

so, if TW weighs 285 and jumps in his mini-van after 17 beers, what is his BAC..??

that's what I heard....

you should buy some carbon credits...

there's probably cigars that will impair someone more than what 1 or 2 drinks would do.