Atlanta Forward readers responded to our recent columns — from the National Transportation Safety Board, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Reason Foundation — about lowering the blood alcohol content level that determines drunk driving. Here are some select comments from our blog under the writers’ chosen screen names:
Sawb: As a person who chooses not to drink, I suppose in a way lowering the limit would be fine with me. However, on the flip side, one has to ask where it stops, and if lowering the limit really deters people from driving drunk. Since people make the decision to drive drunk while they are actually impaired, will they have the cognitive function to even consider the law? Also, what impact will lowering the limits have on the restaurant and hospitality industry if just a couple of drinks can get you arrested? At the end of the day, I would prefer to see increased penalties for those actually convicted of crimes involving alcohol use.
Whirled Peas: I'd much rather be on the road with a guy with two beers than a woman with a cell phone in one hand and a Starbucks in the other.
Eric: I see no reason to lower the limit any further. Why not make the penalty stiffer for violating the current level? I don't see why someone having two glasses of wine at dinner should be cause for an arrest.
xxx: Expecting lower BAC limits to reduce the occurrences of drinking and driving is as silly as Mayor Bloomberg's logic of banning large cups to reduce cola consumption. Neither idea addresses the cause. The best way to deter crime is to make the penalty an unacceptable risk.
An observer: We have drunk drivers at 0.08. We will have drunk drivers at 0.05. The proposed reduction in the limit offers no discernible benefit.
Middle of the road: I fully support every one of MADD's recommendations about drinking and driving. It is only when they stray outside of the driving part, do I disagree with them.
Atlantarama: A single DUI can ruin a person's life, and I've known of too many people who simply got caught by a roadblock at the wrong time. There's something wrong about the way DUI laws work when raising revenue is the main intent, not safety.
Shamehia: "Setting a 0.05 standard (one to two standard drinks) will criminalize many safe drivers." That should worry everyone concerned about creeping government encroachment on our civil liberties. Preventing alcohol-impaired driving is a most worthy goal; however, there comes a tipping point where we have to say, enough is enough. MADD et al will just keep pushing for lower BAC limits until we arrive at backdoor prohibition.
BAS: MADD is an organization that supports a neo-prohibitionist agenda.
Bernie: Drunk and impaired drivers kill innocent Georgians on the road, highways, byways and streets far too often. Period!
