Restaurant Association Opposes Dropping Legal Blood Alcohol Limit
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The American Beverage Institute warns dropping the legal blood alcohol limit to .05 will backfire by devastating the restaurant industry, actually reducing public safety, and do nothing to attack the core of the drunk driving problem.
Restaurant Association Opposes Dropping Legal Blood Alcohol Limit
Sara Longwell, Managing Director of the American Beverage Institute says the NTSB simply got it wrong.
"We have got to figure out how to target hardcore drunk drivers and the NTSB is failing to do that with this recommendation. When you take your scarce police resources and you focus them on moderate, responsible social drinkers instead of that hardcore population, you weaken the police officers ability to go after hardcore drunk drivers," said Longwell.
And suburban attorney and DUI specialist Don Ramsell says he's handled handled 14,000 DUIs since 1984 and has never once encountered a drunk driving fatality involving a driver under .08.
"You know there are billions of dollars of revenue brought in to municipalities based on the number of DUI arrests they make. I am sure that this would please, but I don't think that the cost of all of this will improve the highways," says Ramsell.
Ramsell, who's billed himself as DUI don, says if the object is safer highways, safety officials should find more effective ways to control proven drink drivers with blood alcohol levels of 1.6 and up.
