Legal Drinking Limit Could Be Lowered

It's been 30 years since significant changes in drinking and driving laws have changed the way American's approach their alcohol and driving habits. The standard rule put into affect by most states is that driving with a blood alcohol content of more than .08 percent could result in a conviction. Since this limit became standard in the 1980s and 90s, countries throughout Europe experimented with even lower limits to see the effect they had on drinking and driving accidents. What they found may not be good news for drivers who think they can push themselves up to the legal limit.

The NTSB, or National Transportation Safety Board, released a series of recommendations that included a lowering of the legal BAC level to .05 for all states. This would match the .05 level used in more than 100 other countries who report seeing drastic declines in drinking and driving accidents. While the United States also saw major declines in incidents involving alcohol after the .08 level was put into place, highway safety proponents say that is not enough.

It's hard to tell at this point if the new BAC recommendations will have a chance at passing in most states. The original levels were met with strong resistance from state legislatures and much of the public, so new lower standards may take along time to implement or may not even pass in the near future. It's also not clear what affect this will have on enforcement. The lower limit may motivate local police department to conduct more stops and set up more sobriety checkpoints around San Diego County. As people get used to the new limits, it may result in the need for more DUI lawyers.