Washington lawmakers are poised to, once again, try and lower the legal limit for how much you can drink before driving.
The state’s threshold for drunk driving is a blood alcohol level (BAC) of 0.08%, but there are attempts to lower it to 0.05%.
Lawmakers have tried, and failed, to pass similar legislation over the past few years.
Utah is the only state in the U.S. to use the lower limit. Many countries like Australia, France, Germany, and Italy already use the 0.05% limit.
The Washington Traffic Safety Committee gave a presentation on proposed 0.05 Blood Alcohol Content legislation Thursday. It reports that progress in reducing impaired driving fatal crashes has stagnated for almost 30 years.
The presentation quoted two studies showing evidence that .05 BAC is a level at which critical driving skills are impaired. It also says the risk of a crash is increased significantly when a driver has a BAC above that limit.
A survey of 850 Washington drivers over 21 by the WTSC, found most drivers support a 0.05% BAC limit. After receiving information about the policy, support increased to 71% of survey respondents, and 25% opposed.
A link to the survey can be found here.
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