In March of last year, I wrote about how Utah had passed a law which would lower its blood alcohol content limit from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent. Well, the law is set to take effect in a mere five months for Utah and the state is getting ready for the change.
Using studies that indicate impairment begins to take effect with a blood alcohol content of 0.04 percent to support its position, the National Transportation Safety Board has supported a 0.05 percent blood alcohol content limit for all states.
Utah, however, is the first of any state to drop its blood alcohol content from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent.
“We’ve put together a task force on how we are going to usher this in,” said Utah Highway Patrol Captain Steve Winward to state lawmakers this week.
According to Winward, Utah Highway Patrol officers will get four hours of training that will include a review of Utah policy on breathalyzers and other indicators of intoxication. Other police agencies as well as prosecutors from the state will also receive training.
“We really don’t want to change the way we do business,” Winward told members of the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee. “We want to ensure that we are arresting those that are DUI. We want to educate troopers to focus on impairment and not the number 0.05.”
Winward said the department soon will launch a public relations campaign “to let the public know that it’s coming” and to correct misinformation that has been circulating.
“People think that you can only have one drink and you are over the 0.05,” Winward said. “We want to dispel those myths.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a male weighing 140 pounds would be at, or close to, a 0.08 percent blood alcohol content having had three drinks within an hour. A female weighing 120 pounds would be at, or close to, 0.08 percent blood alcohol content having had just two drinks within an hour. Regardless of gender, your blood alcohol content will not be as high if you weigh more. Conversely, your blood alcohol content will be higher if you weigh less.
On the other hand, male weighing 140 pounds would be at, or close to, 0.05 percent blood alcohol content having had two drinks within an hour. A female weighing 120 pounds would be at, or close to, 0.04 percent blood alcohol content having had just one drink within an hour.
Of course, these figures are approximate and depend on several factors which include, but are not limited to, whether the person ate, what they ate, what they drank, and how fast they drank it. But based on these approximate numbers, we can see that for both males and females, the difference between a 0.08 and a 0.05 percent blood alcohol content is about one less drink in an hour.
According to Winward, the Utah Highway Patrol will use software to track DUI arrests under the new legal limit.
You can be sure I’ll be keeping track of the law’s “success,” but until then, I’ll make a bold prediction: DUI arrests will increase significantly, but whether drivers are actually under the influence will remain as much of a question mark as it always has been.
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