MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Those who deal with alcohol have mixed reactions to lowering the state’s threshold for drunk driving from 0.08 to 0.05.
The National Transportation Safety Board suggests the move, saying the risk of a fatal crash is double when a driver is at 0.08.
Jenny Rabas of UW-Madison Health Services tells the campus Badger Herald a person’s drunk feeling reaches a peak at 0.05 — and their actions are already impaired at that point.
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval agrees there’s some impairment at 0.05, but he says reducing the current minimum could lead to more first-time offenders getting criminal records instead of the treatment they need.
Madison-Dane County Tavern League president Eric Christenson tells WISC-TV the proposal might discourage people from going out at all — and he says a lower BAC would not solve much, since most problem drivers are at 0.08 or higher.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)