By Dr. Bill Jones and Mike Tobias
April was Alcohol Awareness Month, which was a great time for the Michigan Council on Alcohol Problems (MICAP) to reflect on ways that our Michigan community can reduce alcohol-related traffic crashes, deaths, and injuries.
The sad fact is virtually every week, six or seven Michigan adults and children die in alcohol-related traffic accidents.
Michigan State Police data show 357 people died in alcohol-involved traffic crashes in 2021, and 322 died in 2022. They were one-third of all traffic deaths statewide.
Thousands more suffered injuries, often severe and life-altering. Every death and severe injury was an unnecessary and avoidable tragedy.
Here is the key issue for Michigan policymakers. Those statistics only reflect drivers with a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of .08, Michigan’s current legal standard for drunk driving.
Since Michigan adopted its drunk driving law decades ago, new evidence clearly shows drivers are impaired well before reaching .08 BAC. The experts now consider .08 BAC too high.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) studies document significant impairment beginning at a BAC of 0.02. A 2022 NTSB study came to this startling conclusion: “By 0.04 BAC, all measures of impairment are statistically significant.”
In fact, drivers with a BAC below .08 but above .05 are 7 times more likely to be in a fatal crash and up to 17 times more likely to be killed than sober drivers.
Clearly, buzzed driving is impaired driving. Based on solid evidence, NTSB issued a safety recommendation to all states to lower their impaired driving limit from .08 to .05 BAC because a BAC of .05 “will save lives and increase road safety.”
A .05 BAC isn’t an outlier. More than 100 countries have a BAC limit of .05 or lower, including France, Germany and others renowned for enjoying their beer and wine. In some countries, such as Norway and Sweden, the limit is .02 BAC.
In the United States, several state legislatures are considering a .05 BAC. So far only Utah has adopted it, and after adoption, alcohol-related fatalities and crashes in Utah dropped by one-fifth.
The Utah hospitality industry was concerned the new law would impact alcohol sales, but those fears proved unfounded. Alcohol sales actually increased, while miles traveled increased and police enforcement and DUI arrests were virtually unchanged.
If every state adopted a .05 BAC, the NTSB estimates fatal alcohol crashes would drop significantly, “saving 1,800 lives a year and preventing thousands more life-altering injuries.”
The push to adopt .05 BAC isn’t about discouraging drinking. It’s just common sense to make our highways safer. You and the children in your car should not be innocent victims of another driver whose BAC is between .05 and .08.
The Michigan Council on Alcohol Problems is part of a group of organizations, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the American Medical Association, among others, that support .05 BAC.
Michigan should do its part and move quickly to adopt .05 BAC. Saving lives, reducing life-altering injuries, and making our roads safer should be a top priority of every legislator and policymaker.
Stay alive, let’s back Oh-Five!
—————
Dr. Bill Jones is President of the Michigan Council of Alcohol Problems and Mike Tobias is a Past President and current Board member. Information about MICAP and its mission is available at www.micap.org.
April was Alcohol Awareness Month, which was a great time for the Michigan Council on Alcohol Problems (MICAP) to reflect on ways that our Michigan community can reduce alcohol-related traffic crashes, deaths, and injuries.
The sad fact is virtually every week, six or seven Michigan adults and children die in alcohol-related traffic accidents.
Michigan State Police data show 357 people died in alcohol-involved traffic crashes in 2021, and 322 died in 2022. They were one-third of all traffic deaths statewide.
Thousands more suffered injuries, often severe and life-altering. Every death and severe injury was an unnecessary and avoidable tragedy.
Here is the key issue for Michigan policymakers. Those statistics only reflect drivers with a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of .08, Michigan’s current legal standard for drunk driving.
Since Michigan adopted its drunk driving law decades ago, new evidence clearly shows drivers are impaired well before reaching .08 BAC. The experts now consider .08 BAC too high.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) studies document significant impairment beginning at a BAC of 0.02. A 2022 NTSB study came to this startling conclusion: “By 0.04 BAC, all measures of impairment are statistically significant.”
In fact, drivers with a BAC below .08 but above .05 are 7 times more likely to be in a fatal crash and up to 17 times more likely to be killed than sober drivers.
Clearly, buzzed driving is impaired driving. Based on solid evidence, NTSB issued a safety recommendation to all states to lower their impaired driving limit from .08 to .05 BAC because a BAC of .05 “will save lives and increase road safety.”
A .05 BAC isn’t an outlier. More than 100 countries have a BAC limit of .05 or lower, including France, Germany and others renowned for enjoying their beer and wine. In some countries, such as Norway and Sweden, the limit is .02 BAC.
In the United States, several state legislatures are considering a .05 BAC. So far only Utah has adopted it, and after adoption, alcohol-related fatalities and crashes in Utah dropped by one-fifth.
The Utah hospitality industry was concerned the new law would impact alcohol sales, but those fears proved unfounded. Alcohol sales actually increased, while miles traveled increased and police enforcement and DUI arrests were virtually unchanged.
If every state adopted a .05 BAC, the NTSB estimates fatal alcohol crashes would drop significantly, “saving 1,800 lives a year and preventing thousands more life-altering injuries.”
The push to adopt .05 BAC isn’t about discouraging drinking. It’s just common sense to make our highways safer. You and the children in your car should not be innocent victims of another driver whose BAC is between .05 and .08.
The Michigan Council on Alcohol Problems is part of a group of organizations, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the American Medical Association, among others, that support .05 BAC.
Michigan should do its part and move quickly to adopt .05 BAC. Saving lives, reducing life-altering injuries, and making our roads safer should be a top priority of every legislator and policymaker.
Stay alive, let’s back Oh-Five!
—————
Dr. Bill Jones is President of the Michigan Council of Alcohol Problems and Mike Tobias is a Past President and current Board member. Information about MICAP and its mission is available at www.micap.org.
