{"id":10727,"date":"2024-08-05T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T09:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10727"},"modified":"2024-08-05T09:25:34","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T09:25:34","slug":"is-the-u-s-drunk-driving-limit-too-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=10727","title":{"rendered":"Is the U.S. Drunk-Driving Limit Too High?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Experts argue the U.S. drunk-driving limit is too high.<\/p>\n

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In late 2018, Utah lowered<\/a> its drunk-driving limit from a B.A.C. (blood-alcohol content) of .08 to .05.<\/p>\n

A year after the law was implemented, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that fatal car crashes in the state had dropped by nearly 20 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve me, I never thought we would see a significant effect in Utah,\u201d said James Fell, a principle research scientist who studies traffic safety at the independent research organization NORC, at the University of Chicago. The state had one of the lowest impaired driving rates in the United States to begin with, he added.<\/p>\n

Utah is currently the only state in the country with a .05 drunk-driving limit; everywhere else, the limit remains .08. But internationally, Utah is far from alone<\/a>. Australia, France, Thailand and about 50 other countries have a B.A.C. limit of .05, and in more than 30 other countries, the limit is even lower.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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With U.S. drunk-driving deaths rising in recent years (about 33 percent<\/a> between 2019 and 2022, according to the most recent data), several other states \u2014 including New York<\/a>, Washington<\/a>, Hawaii<\/a> and Connecticut<\/a> \u2014 are now considering similar legislation to lower the legal driving limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re losing, on the highways these days, more than 13,000 people a year,\u201d said Thomas Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s just an astonishing number.\u201d In 2022, drunk-driving accidents accounted for 32 percent of all traffic fatalities.<\/p>\n

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Experts argue the U.S. drunk-driving limit is too high.In late 2018, Utah lowered its drunk-driving limit from a B.A.C. (blood-alcohol content) of .08 to .05.A year after the law was implemented, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that fatal car crashes in the state had dropped by nearly 20 percent.\u201cBelieve me, I never thought we would see a significant effect in Utah,\u201d said James Fell, a principle research scientist who studies traffic safety at the independent research organization NORC, at the University of Chicago. The state had one of the lowest impaired driving rates in the United States to begin with, he added.Utah is currently the only state in the country with a .05 drunk-driving limit; everywhere else, the limit remains .08. But internationally, Utah is far from alone. Australia, France, Thailand and about 50 other countries have a B.A.C. limit of .05, and in more than 30 other countries, the limit is even lower.With U.S. drunk-driving deaths rising in recent years (about 33 percent between 2019 and 2022, according to the most recent data), several other states \u2014 including New York, Washington, Hawaii and Connecticut \u2014 are now considering similar legislation to lower the legal driving limit.\u201cWe\u2019re losing, on the highways these days, more than 13,000 people a year,\u201d said Thomas Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s just an astonishing number.\u201d In 2022, drunk-driving accidents accounted for 32 percent of all traffic fatalities.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10729,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10730,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10727\/revisions\/10730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}