Legal limit faces drop
By Nick Hanson & Adam Hammer
The significant impact of having a few drinks may soon change - at least having a few drinks and driving.
The likelihood for Minnesota to drop the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) for driving from .10 to .08 is more pressing than ever, said state representative Joe Opatz.
"It is hard to say what the outcome may be," he said. "It is more likely to pass than ever before. Pawlenty has taken a strong position in favor of it."
However, the debate over .08 BAC is no new thing in Minnesota. The issue was news in 1997 when it failed to win congressional approval and in 1998 during President Clinton's push for a national legal limit of .08.
A bill in 2001, aimed at lowering the legal limit to .08, passed the state House Crime Prevention Committee on a 15-3 vote, but faced opposition in the Senate. The debate was raised after federal lawmakers threatened to withhold federal highway money in 2004 for states not adopting the .08 standard.
"The federal government has mandated that we have to drop (the BAC) or lose some federal highway money," Opatz said.
Compared to grand totals spent on highway funds, the loss would not be too devastating, Opatz said.
"It's a relatively small number, but every little bit counts," he said.
In 1999, lowering the legal BAC around the nation was met with talks of $55 million dollars in federal grant money to states whose lawmakers would pass the bill.
At the time, 16 states already had .08 standards. If Minnesota had passed the lower limit then, it would have claimed about $3.2 million of federal grant money.
Now, 2004 is right around the corner and 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the lower limit. Minnesota is one of the five remaining states that hasn't.
Defense Attorney Todd Chantry of Vermeulen Law Office in St. Cloud said it's just a matter of time for Minnesota.
Chantry is also among many who doubt that lowering the BAC two one-hundredths of a percent will have a major effect.
"Is that guy going to have one less drink at a Wisconsin bar than at a Minnesota bar? No way," Chantry said. "When you leave the bar, nobody knows exactly what level you're at."
Third-year student Jacalyn Voigt agrees that the BAC change will not affect how people socially drink.
"It will be the same people that violated it before," she said. "People that socially drink are aware of the consequences."
A lowered BAC will be positive in most regards, she said.
"If it is going to keep the roads safer, then I am totally for it," she said. "When I go out with friends, I have a designated driver."
Minnesota lawmakers are currently receiving a myriad of recommendations and pressure from the national government and organizations such as M.A.D.D., which, according to Chantry, is nothing to laugh about, but one has to look at the facts.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) released information in 2002 about incidences of impaired driving in Minnesota, stating that BACs of .10 and above were involved in an estimated 30,700 automobile accidents that killed 207 and injured 9,600 in 2000. BACs between .08 and .09 were involved in an estimated 500 crashes that killed 14 and injured 400.
In contrast, BACs below .08 accounted for 1,000 crashes that killed 34 and injured 900.
"I don't dispute that it (.08) does impair your driving abilities," Chantry said.
On average, the clients that Chantry represents in DWI/DUI cases are between .14 and .16 BACs. If anything, Chantry is confident that a drop in the legal limit will create more business for defense attorneys.
"To me, it's going to punish the social drinker," Chantry said.
If the lower legal BAC follows suit, there will also be a rise in gross misdemeanor offenses and more serious charges. Currently, the BAC for gross misdemeanor DUI offense is .20, double the legal limit for misdemeanor DUI. Lowering the legal limit for consistency would create a gross misdemeanor offense at .16 BAC.
Chantry also feels that lowering the legal limit in Minnesota will have little to no effect on repeat DUI offenders.
"It will deter the first-time offender, maybe," Chantry said.
More offenders would likewise create more court costs and possibly more tax dollars for DUI offenders serving time in jail.
The town of Belgrade has already seen monetary issues with prosecuting drunken drivers.
In November, City Attorney William Spooner was directed by the mayor and the police chief to dismiss two gross misdemeanor charges against Brad Lieser, according to Associated Press reports.
Lieser had a previous conviction for DUI, but the police department's budget was reported to be insufficient to further prosecution.
Minnesota has already created more hurdles for DWI/DUI offenders this year.
On July 1, the fee to reinstate driving privileges in Minnesota increased from $395 to $680, for drivers whose privileges have been revoked for alcohol-related offenses, including DWI, refusal to submit to an alcohol content test and criminal vehicular operation.
In light of every aspect of the issue, second-year SCSU student Beth Hanegraaf is torn on a lowered BAC.
"It's kind of a lose-lose situation," she said. "Either way somebody is not going to like it."
Instead, she believes in an alternative method of transportation: "Call a taxi."
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