Limit will deter drunken driving
8:53 PM 6/29/03

Adopting a 0.08 standard for drunken driving will undeniably improve public safety in Wisconsin - so lawmakers last week mystified us when they adjourned without embracing this opportunity to save lives.

Fortunately, Senate leaders regained their senses and will call back lawmakers to take up a bill this week that would lower the blood-alcohol level at which a driver is considered drunk from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent. The measure (AB 88), supported by Gov. Jim Doyle and passed by the Assembly in May, deserves bipartisan Senate support for several reasons:

A new 0.08 standard would send a message that the state is getting tougher on drunken driving, and that should makes most folks think twice before getting behind the wheel after taking a few belts.

Evidence from states that have adopted .08 clearly shows the lower limit is effective at deterring drunken driving.

The federal government has threatened to withhold highway aid for states that refuse to lower the blood-alcohol level at which a driver is considered drunk from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent. The state would lose at least $3 million this year and up to $154 million between 2004 and 2008 if it fails to adopt the tighter standard. States that adopt the new limit can recoup these withheld funds.

The state Senate will return this week to consider the legislation. Some lawmakers oppose the bill because they say the Bush administration is blackmailing states to get tougher laws enacted. They're right, but this law should be passed anyway because it's the right thing to do.

Opponents have a point that no law can deter some hard-core repeat offenders from drinking and driving - but that's no reason not to toughen the law. Studies indicate that reducing the blood alcohol limit reduces the overall incidence of drunken driving.

Wisconsin can and should use the tighter standard as the centerpiece of an intensified campaign to improve the state's relatively poor record for alcohol-related deaths on its roads. And let's not forget to apply the tighter .08 standard in drunken boating and drunken snowmobiling enforcement, too.

Wisconsin needs to do a better job of getting drunken drivers off the road. Lawmakers should heed Kate Nolan, president of the Dane County chapter of MADD, who told the Associated Press: "I don't care about the money. I want us to have whatever it will take to save lives."