The National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday that the legal blood alcohol level at which a vehicle can be operated drop from .08 to .05, according to the Washington Post. This is the equivalent of a dry martini of two beers for a person who weighs 160 pounds.
According to a University of Oklahoma calculator a .08 BAC (blood-alcohol content which is the same as blood-alcohol level) would allow a 160-pound individual to drive after having consumed two bears or two margaritas.
“The research clearly shows that drivers with a BAC above 0.05 are impaired and at a significantly greater risk of being involved in a crash where someone is killed or injured,” said NTSB Chairman Deborah A. P. Hersman. “Our goal is to get to zero deaths, because each alcohol-impaired death is preventable. They are crimes. They can and should be prevented. The tools exist. What is needed is the will.”
According to Jonathan Adkins of the Governors Highway Safety Association, “NTSB’s action raises the visibility of drunk driving and we will consider their recommendations.” The NTSB cannot legally force their recommendation into law but the board does carry some influence.
The HSA says they will continue to stand behind the .08 level.
Sarah Longwell of the American Beverage Institute, which lobbies for the beer and liquor industry around the country, called the recommendations “terrible.”
“Between .05 and .08 is not where fatalities are occurring. This is like, people are driving through an intersection at 90 miles an hour and so you drop the speed limit from 35 to 25, it doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “This is something that is going to have a tremendously negative impact on the hospitality industry while not having a positive impact on road safety.”
According to the NTSB just fewer than 10,000 people are killed and 173,000 are injured each year due to a drunk driving crash. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an insurance industry research group, the risks associated with impaired driving can begin much earlier than when a person’s alcohol level reaches .08.
Longwell said the average BAC at which drunk driving deaths occur is .16.
