A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine offered a variety of ways to keep roads throughout Missouri and the rest of America safer. One of those suggestions was to reduce the legal blood alcohol limit to .05 percent from the current .08 percent. Other recommendations included raising alcohol taxes and making alcohol harder to get. This could be done by limiting where and when it could be sold to customers.
Putting limits on how alcohol could be marketed may also have an impact on society’s drinking habits. Finally, the report says that more should be done to make sure that those who are intoxicated or are under 21 are not served. According to the Distilled Spirits Council, many of these measures will have little impact on traffic safety. The group specifically singled out the idea to reduce the blood alcohol threshold to .05 percent.
It claims that most drunk drivers are repeat offenders who tend to have high blood alcohol levels. Therefore, changing the law won’t do anything to change their behavior. How fast a person would get to .05 percent depends on their gender, weight and if an individual had eaten recently. A man over 180 pounds would likely hit that threshold after three drinks while a woman around 120 pounds would likely do so after two drinks.
Potential penalties for a drunk driving conviction include fines, jail time and a driver’s license suspension. However, an attorney may assist an individual in resolving a drunk driving case in a favorable manner. This could be done by having evidence suppressed or by casting doubt on police testimony. Taking these steps could result in a plea deal or acquittal.