States should cut their threshold for drunken driving by nearly half--from .08 blood alcohol level to 0.05--matching a standard that has substantially reduced highway deaths in other countries, a U.S. safety board recommends. That's about one drink for a woman weighing less than 120 lbs., two for a 160 lb. man.
More than 100 countries have adopted the .05 alcohol content standard or lower, according to a report by the board's staff. In Europe, the share of traffic deaths attributable to drunken driving was reduced by more than half within 10 years after the standard was dropped, the report said.
NTSB officials said it wasn't their intention to prevent drivers from having a glass of wine with dinner, but they acknowledged that under a threshold as low as .05 the safest thing for people who have only one or two drinks is not to drive at all.
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8 comments:
Why can't the US just be the US and not always follow what 'other countries are doing'
Look where that has gotten us just with Obama.
It has absolutely nothing to do with "public safety" any more than the stoplight cameras do. It's all about making the leeching lawyers richer and empowering the government even more.
They should lower it to .000000000000000000001. Any drinking and driving, you should be convicted of attempted manslaughter, minimum 5 years prison.
Of course, here in Salisbury, you can blow a .24 and as long as you're a life long resident (or have a popular last name), they'll let you go.
it just another way to control and tax the shi! outta everyone!
if every other country jumped off a bridge, would we? Oh, wait a minute!
sorry 9:58 don't mean to jump off of the pc wagon but enough laws is enough laws there was a time when we would never have thought of road blocks, being forced to wear seat belts, being able to smoke in your own home, driving down the road without cameras checking our speed, etc. etc. etc. now folks like you say the government should make more laws to take away more liberty from all of us because you say having two drinks and driving is wrong. how much more liberty are we supposed to give up. i say no more
I don't care what other socialist and communist countries do. America used to be different, a place where those people came to experience freedom. I guess in some individual states like MD they would more prefer that you were high on pot than to have had two beers to drink before driving.
It doesn't matter what they set the limit at because people are still going to do it and at least in Maryland the penalties are a joke.
First time offender is looking at a $400-$500 fine as long as they didn't injure/kill anyone. Doesn't matter if you spend $10,000 on a private attorney or use the public defender. Any subsequent offense brings the possibility of jail time. I've seen 2 days at most for a second offense. And to top it off the defendant gets to choose when he serves his time instead of going straight to jail. Instead of making new laws they need to enforce and penalize to the fullest extant on existing laws. For anyone who doubts this go sit in a district court if you have the time.
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