29 Feb Could we see a drop in Indiana’s BAC limit?
Could Indiana see a drop in its BAC limit for people behind the wheel? A proposal last month by the National Transportation Safety Board to lower the legal limit from .08 to .05 BAC has not fallen on deaf ears in the Hoosier State.
Indiana State Police Sergeant Todd Ringle agrees with the proposal, citing the 450 alcohol-crashes involved drivers with a BAC of .05 – .07 in 2015. Of those 450 crashes, seven people were killed and another 240 were injured, reported WishTV.com.
Retired State Senator Tom Wyss lead the charge in 2001 to drop the legal limit from .1 to .08, and wishes luck to Sergeant Ringle and all involved is the push to lower the limit further.
“It was a tremendous fight and any attempt to do anything different now is going to be just as difficult, if not more so,” Wyss told WishTV.com. “It took 11 years of constant badgering and coming back with the legislation to get the legislators to even move to the 0.08.”
Wyss said one of the biggest challenges in the initial fight was getting people to understand the difference between being “impaired” and being “drunk,” a challenge supporters of the limit will surely face again in 2016 as attitudes towards drinking and driving remain as rooted in the past as ever, even with the advent of Uber and other ride share options become more readily available.
“If you lowered it to 0.04 or 0.02 or 0.01, you’d probably get an incremental decrease in traffic accidents related to that but to prevent traffic fatalities related to alcohol impaired drivers I would be more in favor of, for instance ignition locks on those who have already been convicted of drunk driving behavior,” Reed tells WishTV.
Both men agree the proposal is more about cracking down on drunk driving and not drinking as a whole.
Barry Coker
Posted at 16:07h, 29 FebruaryWhat a ridiculous law! Another knee-jerk reaction that doesn’t make sense. Just because people who were in accidents had a couple of beers, doesn’t mean the accidents were caused because of that. Most often, accidents just happen and alcohol (or lack thereof) has no bearing on it. Sometimes its unavoidable, sometimes people are just bad drivers. 08 is NOT DRUNK (or impaired) for most of us, and .05 is a joke. Instead of focusing on the person who has a cocktail with friends, just spend your time and resources on the truly dangerous divers who have no business being on the roads!