Law that makes it illegal to operate a motor vehicle at or above .08 Blood Alcohol Concentration.

Overview

Blood alcohol concentration is a measure of how much alcohol is in someone's blood. It is the most accurate and measurable gauge of alcohol impairment. When a person reaches .08 BAC, it should be illegal for him or her to drive a vehicle. To reach a .08 BAC level, a 170-pound man would have to drink approximately four drinks in one hour on an empty stomach or a 137-pound woman would have to drink approximately three drinks in one hour on an empty stomach. This is not social drinking. When drivers reach .08 BAC, their critical driving skills, like judging distance and speed, steering, visual tracking, concentration, braking, and staying in driving lanes are severely impaired. (Moskowitz, 2000)  At a .08 BAC level, a person is 11 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than someone who has had nothing to drink. (Zador, 2000) (Keall et al, 2004)

Passing .08 BAC laws saves lives. In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed the available literature and concluded that .08 BAC laws reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities by an average of seven percent. (CDC Community Guide, 2001)  Additionally, a study of the effectiveness of the .08 percent BAC law implemented in Illinois found that enactment of the law was associated with a 13.7 percent decline in the number of drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes. (Voas, Tippetts, & Taylor, 2001)  It also found that crashes were decreased at all BAC levels, including crashes among high-BAC drivers (drivers at a .15 BAC or above). There are numerous additional studies, all of which confirm that .08 BAC per se laws save lives.

Additionally, there is little to no cost – states that have implemented .08 BAC per se laws have found no substantial negative impact on law enforcement, the judicial system, or the prison system. (Voas, Tippetts, & Taylor, 2001) (NHTSA, 1991) Also, studies have found that .08 BAC laws would cost $2.70 to $3 per licensed driver, but save $38-40 per licensed driver, a significant savings. These savings occur because of the decrease in the number of fatal and injurious crashes and a reduction in associated costs (police and emergency response, health care, lost wages and productivity, etc.). (NHTSA, 2001) (Miller, 2001)

In short, this is a lifesaving piece of legislation that every state should have.  And, as of August 2005, all states will -- all states have passed a .08 per se law and the final one takes effect then.

Related Issues

• Administrative license revocation (ALR)
• Mandatory assessment/treatment
• Repeat offenders
• High-BAC drivers

Resources

• Official Position Statement
• Studies
  • MADD's Impaired Driving Summit Report (PDF) 
  • Aplser, Robert and Terry Klein. "The Effects of 0.08 BAC Laws." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 1999.
  • CDC Community Guide. "Effectiveness of 0.08 Percent Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Laws," 2001.
  • Hingson, Ralph, Timothy Heeren, and Michael Winter. "Lowering State Legal Blood Alcohol Limits to 0.08 Percent: The Effect on Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes." American Journal of Public Health 86 (1996), 1297-1299. (not yet available online)
  • Hingson, Ralph, Timothy Heeren, and Michael Winter. "Effects of Recent 0.08 Percent Legal Blood Limits on Fatal Crash Involvement." Injury Prevention 6 (2000):109-114. (not yet available online)
  • Keall, Michael, William Frith, and Tui Patterson.  "The Influence of Alcohol, Age and Number of Passengers on the Night-Time Risk of Driver Fatal Injury in New Zealand." Accident Analysis and Prevention 36 (2004): 49-61. 
  • Miller, Ted R.  "The Effectiveness Review Trials of Hercules and Some Economic Estimates for the Stables." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 21 (4S) (2001): 9-12. 
  • Moskowitz, H., et al. "Driver Characteristics and Impairment at Various BACs." DOT HS 809 075. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, August 2000. 
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "The Effects Following the Implementation of an .08 BAC Limit and an Administrative Pre Se Law in California." DOT HS 807 777. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1991.
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Impaired Driving in the United States: Cost Fact Sheets." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2001.
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "A Review of the Literature on the Effects of Alcohol at BACs of .08 and Lower." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2001. 
  • Shults, Ruth, et al. "Reviews of Evidence Regarding Interventions to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 21(4S) (2001): 66-88.
  • Voas, Robert A., et al. "Effectiveness of the Illinois .08 Law." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, September 2000.
  • Voas, Robert, A. Scott Tippetts, and Eileen Taylor. "Effectiveness of the Illinois .08 Law: An Update with 1999 FARS Data", DOT HS 809 382. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, December 2001.
  • Voas, Robert and A. Scott Tippetts, 1999. "The Relationship of Alcohol Safety Laws to Drinking Drivers in Fatal Crashes." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, August 1999.
  • Zador, Paul, Sheila Krawchuk, and Robert Voas. "Relative Risk of Fatal Crash Involvement by BAC, Age, and Gender," DOT HS 809 050. Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2000.
• Fact Sheets
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "NHTSA's Traffic Safety Facts: .08 Illegal Per Se." Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, May 2003.

 

States with this law
Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming