Safety board calls for lower drunken-driving limit
By BART JANSEN USA TODAY on May 15, 2013, at 2:17 AM Updated on 5/15/13 at 4:55 AM
Deborah Hersman: The NTSB says blood-alcohol level limit should be 0.05 percent
US & World
Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco on Tuesday to evacuate some of the thousands of tourists stranded by flooding and landslides that shut down the highway to Mexico City and swamped the international airport.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
States should reduce the blood-alcohol level that qualifies as drunken driving to 0.05 percent from 0.08 percent to reduce fatal crashes, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday.
The risk of a crash at 0.05 percent is about half as much as at 0.08 percent, the present limit in all states, a safety board report said.
The board's recommendation follows an effort in the European Union, which set a goal of cutting alcohol-related fatalities in half by 2010 and succeeded. Europe is now trying to cut the crashes in half again over the next decade.
"This is critical because impaired driving remains one of the biggest killers in the United States," said Deborah Hersman, the NTSB chairman. "To make a bold difference will require bold action. But it can be done."
The difference is about one drink for a woman weighing less than 120 lbs., two for a 160 lb. man. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine, or one ounce of 80-proof alcohol.
The board can't make laws or regulations, but makes recommendations to states and the federal government.
The American Beverage Institute, a trade group representing 8,000 restaurants, blasted the report for focusing on moderate drinkers rather than more dangerous drunken drivers.
The average woman reaches 0.05 percent blood-alcohol content after one drink, according to the institute. But more than 70 percent of drunken-driving fatalities are caused by drivers with at least 0.15 percent, representing six or seven drinks, it said.
"This recommendation is ludicrous," said Sarah Long-well, the institute's managing director. "Further restricting the moderate consumption of alcohol by responsible adults prior to driving does nothing to stop hard-core drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel."
Original Print Headline: Tougher DUI limits proposed
US & World
Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco on Tuesday to evacuate some of the thousands of tourists stranded by flooding and landslides that shut down the highway to Mexico City and swamped the international airport.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
