In 2016 Utah passed a law which would lower its blood alcohol content limit from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent, making it the toughest DUI law in the country in terms of a BAC limit. Well, as of January 1st, 2019, Utah’s new law took effect.
Prior to Utah’s change, all states had the same blood alcohol content limit of 0.08 percent. However, states differed with what punishments a DUI carries.
Although the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that all states lower their blood alcohol content limits from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent, only Utah has done so. The National Transportation Safety Board based its recommendation on studies suggesting that impairment begins when the blood alcohol content reaches 0.04 percent.
Utah will now have the task of transitioning into enforcing the new limit.
“We’ve put together a task force on how we are going to usher this in,” Utah Highway Patrol Captain Steve Winward told state lawmakers late last year.
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 last year. “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.”
Leading up to the new year, Utah underwent a public relations campaign to inform the public of the new limit.
“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.
However, 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.
“I have no doubt that proponents of .05 laws are well-intentioned, but good intentions don’t necessarily yield good public policy,” Jackson Shedelbower, The American Beverage Institute spokesman, said in a statement.
Shedelbower added, and I agree, that the new law focuses on moderate and responsible drinkers, as opposed to drivers with far higher BAC levels who are responsible for the majority of alcohol-related traffic fatalities, according to The Washington Post.
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