There is no one who understands how alcohol impairs the thinking process that would fight against the current limits to drinking and driving. There are some who may think that the new guidelines being proposed to lower the drinking limit may be a bit excessive. The National Transportation Safety Board this week appealed to Congress to lower the legal drinking limit from .08 to .05. Not being the first attempt, they have tried to lower the limit three previous times in the past four years. The problem is that there is just not a lot of support to lowering it.
The case being made
The NTSB claims that as many as one in three fatal crashes in the US can be attributed to driving while under the influence. Their plea insists that lowering the limit by just .03, they could save as many as between five hundred and eight hundred lives a year. Going from .15 when the first laws were enacted, it has already been reduced three times.
Highly skilled car accident lawyers who are fighting the change believe that the only benefit to changing the limit will be in their law business’s activity. Already fighting to defend people who were not intoxicated at the .08 level, lawyers have no shortage of business for those who are accused of driving under the influence.
Since everyone reacts differently to alcohol consumption, many believe that the actual number is cause for debate. Someone can be impaired at .01 while others may be totally unimpaired at .08; the number is arguably not a real reflection of a person’s actions. The only way for someone to be found impaired should be if they were actually impaired while driving.
The science behind it will tell you that everyone metabolizes alcohol differently. Some have more tolerance than others, so a number used to find people guilty may be nothing short of arbitrary. Lowering the number would do nothing but cause what is tantamount to more “false positives” and more people being accused of a crime they may not be committing at all.
There are stages of acute alcoholic influence that have been scientifically studied. It shows that there are different symptoms of stages according to where the individual is at. There are some findings that at .05 a person can behave euphoric while others say that there is virtually no difference in a person's capacity to drive. At the .05 level, it may take specific types of special tests to detect impairment. At those levels, it may be more searching than any actual behavioural deficits of the individual.
There are many factors that lead to the alcohol level in a person. Things such as their height, weight, and gender, are all factors that have to be taken into account, but they aren’t when you use a simple number to accuse someone of driving while impaired. The last change made to the legal limit was over a decade ago, and it would take an additional change by Congress to lower the limit again.
It may be overkill anyway. Law officials have the right to use discretion to arrest someone for driving while impaired if their levels are between .05-.07 if they are showing significant changes in their behavior or any maneuvering impairment. If there is an incident where someone clearly crosses the line like hitting something or someone, the number is completely arbitrary to their actions.
Regarding numbers, it only takes an additional drink for a person who is 180 or more to go from .05 to 08 in one hours time. Any guy will tell you that one to go, is not going to make a change in their driving performance.
There is so much gray area when it comes to a person driving while under the influence. We all know those people who can belly up to the bar and walk out like they haven’t had a drink while there are others who can have one glass of champagne, and not be able to walk a straight line.
Although a necessary tool to strengthen the case against someone who is endangering the public, it should only be used as a strengthening tool to persecute someone who was doing something wrong, not to prove that someone was doing something wrong in the absence of other indicators.