Before long, it could be easier for police officers to bust citizens for drinking and driving.
The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending lowering the legal limit to .05 from .08. The goal is to reduce death and injury on the highway.
So what would a three tenths of a percentage point mean?
The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention uses a 160-pound male to gauge the effects of alcohol on the body. A drink is considered a 12 ounce beer, 4 ounces of wine or a shot of liquor.
In this scenario, they said you get to a blood alcohol level of .05 with three drinks in an hour. At this level, the CDC said you experience difficulty steering and your coordination and impairment are lowered.
Meanwhile, the CDC said four drinks in an hour will get you to .08, where the legal limit is now. The CDC said balance, speech, vision and concentration are impaired at that point, and it’s hard to see dangerous situations coming.
FOX13 asked Shelby County, Tennessee District Attorney Amy Weirich how such changes would impact her work load in prosecuting drunken driving cases.
“The way we do it would be in the same format, but it would change the number of cases coming into the system that had to be handled by the jails, the clerk's office, the judges, defense attorneys and our office,” Weirich said.
The NTSB has made similar recommendations in the past. States are ultimately responsible for such legislation changes.
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