Utah wants to lower BAC for drunk driving to .05

T

Text Drivers are Killers

Joe Biden - "Time to put Trump in the bullseye."
Drunk drivers are killers and maimers - let's stop coddling them. And go after speeders and text-drivers and red light runners too. Lock 'em up!!

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-alcohol-limit-20161231-story.html

jan 1 2017 If a tough new proposal in Utah becomes law, just a few drinks — or even a few swigs — could put you over the limit for drunk driving.

An effort is underway in the state to lower the legal blood-alcohol concentration for driving to .05 — a first in the nation. Currently, all 50 states have a .08 cap, eschewing suggestions from the National Transportation Safety Board to redefine what constitutes drunk driving.

But state Rep. Norman Thurston, a Republican from Provo who plans to introduce a bill on the issue in the upcoming legislative session, wants that to change in 2017.

“Impairment starts with the first drink, and we want to establish this state as one where you just simply do not drink and drive,” said Thurston, noting he worked with officials from the Utah Highway Patrol while drafting the legislation. “This is all about safety.”

If Utah makes the change, it will join several countries in Europe — such as Austria, France and Germany — that have blood-alcohol limits of .05. (In Poland, it’s .02).

“Why not focus on reducing the speed limit, or limiting texting while driving?” said Connor Boyack, president of the libertarian-leaning Libertas Institute, located outside Salt Lake City. “Those are real factors in causing traffic deaths.… This would just criminalize people not causing any problems.”
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This won't do much good unless the penalties for DUI are increased. It should be an automatic felony with mandatory loss of license for at least 3 years. Do the same with text-drivers.
 
Decades ago my motorcycle salesman and I were standing next to the parts counter when a customer set a handlebar-mount mirror on it. The packaging said "Universal".
The salesman said: "Universal. That means it doesn't fit anything."

Our motor vehicle & traffic laws are over due for a major overhaul. One size fits nobody.

The most obvious example is posted speed limits. Many of these speed limits were set a half century or more ago.
Back then there were cars on the road with 2 wheel brakes.
Since then we've gone:
- from two wheel to four wheel brakes
- from bias ply to radial tires
- from drum brakes to disc brakes
and we have further innovations like:
- anti-lock
- autonomous braking
- stabilitrack
- etc.

Stopping distances have been cut in half.

I put a few thousand miles on this little gem late last year, going from Northern New York to North Carolina.

279257748f6a711694873dd617a8bad39602b5f.JPG


There are highways (I-95?) w/ posted limits of 70 MPH.
But I had to go 80 MPH or more just to keep up with traffic.

Problem is; we're either law abiding citizens, or not.
And because of ridiculously low posted speed limits, most of us are not.

I've driven this car at 55 MPH, the posted speed limit.
It's dangerous!
It's so deadly boring it's very difficult to keep mind on task.
So I fiddle with the audio, rummage in the glove box, or whatever.
At 70 to 75 MPH it's more sensible. It keeps what's going on through the front window worth keeping an eye on.

I genuinely believe I'm a safer, better driver at ~70 MPH under many conditions than I am under the same conditions at 55.

My comment on licensing higher BAC pending.
 
sear said:
I've driven this car at 55 MPH, the posted speed limit.
It's dangerous!
It's so deadly boring it's very difficult to keep mind on task.
So I fiddle with the audio, rummage in the glove box, or whatever.
At 70 to 75 MPH it's more sensible. It keeps what's going on through the front window worth keeping an eye on.

I genuinely believe I'm a safer, better driver at ~70 MPH under many conditions than I am under the same conditions at 55.
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We have 35,000 americans killed on the highways every year. That's 100 a day. That is not acceptable esp since 99% are caused by bad driving. Very very few "accidents" on the highway. Nearly every time there is a crash, some idiot did something wrong.

As for your claim that 55 mph is boring, that proves how crazy you are. 55 is PLENTY fast and making it universal would unquestionably save thousands of lives every year. That's an established fact because back in 1974 we lowered speed limits nationwide from 70-75 to 55 and immediately highway deaths dropped from 55,000 a year to 46,000.
 
Text Drivers are Killers said:
We have 35,000 americans killed on the highways every year. That's 100 a day. That is not acceptable esp since 99% are caused by bad driving. Very very few "accidents" on the highway. Nearly every time there is a crash, some idiot did something wrong.

As for your claim that 55 mph is boring, that proves how crazy you are. 55 is PLENTY fast and making it universal would unquestionably save thousands of lives every year. That's an established fact because back in 1974 we lowered speed limits nationwide from 70-75 to 55 and immediately highway deaths dropped from 55,000 a year to 46,000.
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Not since texting came along. Cell phones should be disabled when moving
 
domer76 said:
It's rare to be drunk at a 0.05 BAC. That Rep. Thurston doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about.
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No, "drunk" isn't even the issue.

The issue is whether judgement and reaction are impaired to too great a degree.

You don't have to be drunk for that.
 
"We have 35,000 americans killed on the highways every year. That's 100 a day. That is not acceptable esp since 99% are caused by bad driving." TK #4

My point precisely.
Reportedly Einstein defined continuing to do the same thing, but expecting a different result as insanity.

By changing nothing, YOU accept it.

I'm the one that finds it unacceptable; and advocate change to reduce the carnage (please pardon the pun).

"It's rare to be drunk at a 0.05 BAC. That Rep. Thurston doesn't know what the" d7 #7

"Impaired" is the issue. Are the driver's skills degraded, as Wm #8 observes.

Why have a one size fits nobody standard?

Why should a 13 year old garbage truck be allowed to careen down the highway at the same speed as a brand new Porsche? The latter might be able to stop in half the distance.

So why not regulate by stopping distance, instead of a one size fits no one standard, MPH?

0.08 might leave some as rational and coordinated as a judge, but leave others staggering instead of standing. Should individual drivers have individualized limits?
 
Text Drivers are Killers said:
We have 35,000 americans killed on the highways every year. That's 100 a day. That is not acceptable esp since 99% are caused by bad driving. Very very few "accidents" on the highway. Nearly every time there is a crash, some idiot did something wrong.

As for your claim that 55 mph is boring, that proves how crazy you are. 55 is PLENTY fast and making it universal would unquestionably save thousands of lives every year. That's an established fact because back in 1974 we lowered speed limits nationwide from 70-75 to 55 and immediately highway deaths dropped from 55,000 a year to 46,000.
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Since which time seatbelts and airbags are in every car, there are vastly improved safety features like crumple zones, all round disc brakes etc. Our motorways have a 70 limit but the police leave you alone unless you do more than 80.

Sent from my Lenovo K52e78 using Tapatalk
 
Text Drivers are Killers said:
This won't do much good unless the penalties for DUI are increased. It should be an automatic felony with mandatory loss of license for at least 3 years. Do the same with text-drivers.
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I get your point but for some people who don't weigh a lot .05 is basically just a big glass of wine or an ice beer and making that a felony is just wrong. How much of this is really about safety and how much of it is really just about revenue?
 
Text Drivers are Killers said:
This won't do much good unless the penalties for DUI are increased. It should be an automatic felony with mandatory loss of license for at least 3 years. Do the same with text-drivers.
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The right of a citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon in the ordinary course of life and business is a common right which he has under his right to enjoy life and liberty.... It includes the right in so doing to use the ordinary and usual conveyances of the day; and under existing modes of travel includes the right to drive a horse-drawn carriage or wagon thereon, or to operate an automobile thereon for the usual and ordinary purposes of life and business. It is not a mere privilege, like the privilege of moving a house in the street, operating a business stand in the street, or transporting persons or property for hire along the street, which the city may permit or prohibit at will.
Thompson v. Smith, 154 S.E. 579, 1929
 
Alcohol doesn't kill people, drivers kill people. Stop the over regulation of driving!
 
Guille said:
I get your point but for some people who don't weigh a lot .05 is basically just a big glass of wine or an ice beer and making that a felony is just wrong. How much of this is really about safety and how much of it is really just about revenue?
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It's safety and revenue. What's wrong with making criminals pay? Esp ones that cost us billions of $ every year. THINK
 
SmarterthanYou said:
The right of a citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon in the ordinary course of life and business is a common right which he has under his right to enjoy life and liberty.... It includes the right in so doing to use the ordinary and usual conveyances of the day; and under existing modes of travel includes the right to drive a horse-drawn carriage or wagon thereon, or to operate an automobile thereon for the usual and ordinary purposes of life and business. It is not a mere privilege, like the privilege of moving a house in the street, operating a business stand in the street, or transporting persons or property for hire along the street, which the city may permit or prohibit at will.
Thompson v. Smith, 154 S.E. 579, 1929
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Hey stupid. Judges are not allowed to write laws.
 
"Hey stupid. Judges are not allowed to write laws." TK #18

OF COURSE they do!

There's even a few names for it.

- One of them is "legislation from the bench". But the more formal legal term, the one that's factored into human law for millennia is:

- stare decisis: to stand by things decided. It's why precedent is such a huge deal in our law courts.

Marbury v. Madison

Chief Justice John Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court rules that any act of Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is null and void. His decision in the case of Marbury v. Madison February 14 establishes the Court as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution.

The People's Chronology is licensed from Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Copyright © 1995, 1996 by James Trager. All rights reserved.
 
WillReadmore said:
No, "drunk" isn't even the issue.

The issue is whether judgement and reaction are impaired to too great a degree.

You don't have to be drunk for that.
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Sure don't. I guess that should also eliminate a car full of rambunctious kids, no driving while in an argument and any number of circumstances that affects the same. Bottom line, the 0.05 BAC driver isn't the problem.
 
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