On any given day, newspapers around the country publish crime reports. Accounts of incidents involving alcohol — generally, DWIs — often report that a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC) was “twice the legal limit” or even “three times the legal limit.”
Understanding the Numbers
The phrasing is intended to put perspective around the otherwise-obscure BAC numbers. “The legal limit”, “twice the legal limit”, and “three times the legal limit” are easier to make sense of than 0.08, 0.16, or 0.24.
If 0.05 became the law in Minnesota, an offender with a BAC of 0.15 will have committed his or her offense while at “three times the legal limit,” while an offender at 0.16 who is arrested today will only be at twice the legal limit. But who was drunker?
Who Was Drunker?
Multiples of “the legal limit” are shorthand for degree of guilt. A driver identified as having a blood alcohol content of twice the legal limit is seen as more guilty than someone who was just barely over the limit.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Board (NHTSB) has recently recommended that all fifty states reduce the legal BAC for driving from 0.08 to 0.05.
If 0.05 became the law in Minnesota, an offender with a BAC of 0.15 will have committed his or her offense while at “three times the legal limit”. An offender at 0.16 who is arrested today will only be at twice the legal limit. But who was drunker?
Will Lowering the Legal BAC Limit Save Lives?
Maybe. But it’s complicated.
Since the BAC was lowered from 0.10 to 0.08 starting in 1982, the number of “alcohol-related” deaths in automobile accidents has gone down by about 50%. But it’s worth noting that automobiles have become much safer in that time, too, with airbags and other technology.
And the statistics are muddied by terminology. “Alcohol-related”, in the way NHTSB uses the term, doesn’t necessarily mean that the accident was caused by a drunk driver. When the NHTSB identifies an incident as “alcohol-related“, that means an incident in which any measurable amount of alcohol was present in anyone involved. Anyone, not only the driver. So if, for instance, a sober driver hits a pedestrian who has a BAC of 0.01, that is tagged as an alcohol-related incident, even though the driver hadn’t been drinking.
And finally, lowering the BAC isn’t the only way to make a difference. Lowering speed limits also dramatically decreases driving fatalities. So does reducing driver distraction and inattention.
What do you think?
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