fatality statistics are reviewed, the facts are that harsher drunk driving legislation does help combat the drunk driving problem to some degree. However, the unfortunate rise in drunk driving fatalities has created another storm of protest and calls for action from the grass roots organizations discussed earlier. MADD gave the overall fifty states a “C+” on their efforts to improve this serious social problem, but feel the rise in statistics shows that too many people feel the war on “drunk driving” is already won, or have failed to take it as seriously as when the issue first came to national attention. As such, they have proposed new legislation that is designed to make it mandatory for all fifty states to reduce their BAC, the measurement which is used by law enforcement officers to legally declare someone driving under the influence, from the current .10% to 0.8%. While thirteen states have already adopted this measure, and the Senate has adopted the amendment, groups like MADD hope to see it become law as part of larger transportation legislation. They argue that such a law would help to reduce drunk driving death’s by ten percent, “The amendment to lower alcohol limits easily passed a floor vote by a margin of 62-32, and was tacked on to broader transportation funding legislation pending under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). States failing to enforce the lower blood alcohol limits by Oct. 1, 2001 would lose 5% of their funding under ISTEA. Penalties would increase to 10 percent in subsequent years unless the new standard was installed,” (Connor 1).
In favor of lowering the BAC is the fact that the now legal 0.10% can cause impairment for many individuals who choose to drink and drive. There are those opposed to the lowering of BAC levels to .08, feeling that it is does not allow an individual enough margin of leeway if they have only had a “few” drinks and get behind ...