“This .08 standard is the biggest step to toughen drunk driving laws and reduce alcohol related crashes since a national minimum drinking age was established a generation ago.  It is estimated by the experts that have studied it that it will save at least 500 lives every year.” – President William Clinton, October 2000

Blood alcohol concentration is a measure of how much alcohol is in someone's blood. It is the most accurate and measurable gauge of alcohol impairment. Virtually everyone is significantly impaired at a .08 BAC, so it is a logic place to draw the line for defining what is drunk driving. At .08, a person is 11 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than someone who has had nothing to drink. (Zador, 2000) (Keall et al, 2004)

It isn’t a small amount of alcohol either -- to reach a .08 BAC level, a 170-pound man would have to drink approximately four drinks in one hour on an empty stomach or a 137-pound woman would have to drink approximately three drinks in one hour on an empty stomach.

And it is lifesaving legislation.  In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed all of the studies and concluded that .08 BAC laws reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities by an average of seven percent. (CDC Community Guide, 2001)  Other studies show its effectiveness as well among all levels of BAC. (Voas, Tippetts, & Taylor, 2001 and many others below).  These laws have also been shown to save much more money than they cost, as well as lives. (NHTSA, 1991) (NHTSA, 2001) (Miller, 2001)

In short, this is a lifesaving piece of legislation that every state should have and every state does.

Resources

• Official Position Statement
• Studies
  • Aplser, Robert and Terry Klein. "The Effects of 0.08 BAC Laws." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 1999. (Click here)
  • CDC Community Guide. "Effectiveness of 0.08 Percent Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Laws," 2001. (Click here)
  • Hingson, Ralph, Timothy Heeren, and Michael Winter. "Lowering State Legal Blood Alcohol Limits to 0.08 Percent: The Effect on Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes." American Journal of Public Health 86 (1996), 1297-1299. (not yet available online)
  • Hingson, Ralph, Timothy Heeren, and Michael Winter. "Effects of Recent 0.08 Percent Legal Blood Limits on Fatal Crash Involvement." Injury Prevention 6 (2000):109-114. (not yet available online)
  • Keall, Michael, William Frith, and Tui Patterson.  "The Influence of Alcohol, Age and Number of Passengers on the Night-Time Risk of Driver Fatal Injury in New Zealand." Accident Analysis and Prevention 36 (2004): 49-61.  (Click here)
  • Miller, Ted R.  "The Effectiveness Review Trials of Hercules and Some Economic Estimates for the Stables." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 21 (4S) (2001): 9-12. (Click here)
  • Moskowitz, H., et al. "Driver Characteristics and Impairment at Various BACs." DOT HS 809 075. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, August 2000. (Click here)
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "The Effects Following the Implementation of an .08 BAC Limit and an Administrative Pre Se Law in California." DOT HS 807 777. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1991. (not yet available online)
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Impaired Driving in the United States: Cost Fact Sheets." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2001. (Click here)
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "A Review of the Literature on the Effects of Alcohol at BACs of .08 and Lower." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2001. (Click here)
  • Shults, Ruth, et al. "Reviews of Evidence Regarding Interventions to Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 21(4S) (2001): 66-88. (Click here)
  • Voas, Robert A., et al. "Effectiveness of the Illinois .08 Law." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, September 2000. (Click here)
  • Voas, Robert, A. Scott Tippetts, and Eileen Taylor. "Effectiveness of the Illinois .08 Law: An Update with 1999 FARS Data", DOT HS 809 382. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, December 2001. (not yet available online)
  • Voas, Robert and A. Scott Tippetts, 1999. "The Relationship of Alcohol Safety Laws to Drinking Drivers in Fatal Crashes." Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, August 1999. (Click here)
  • Zador, Paul, Sheila Krawchuk, and Robert Voas. "Relative Risk of Fatal Crash Involvement by BAC, Age, and Gender," DOT HS 809 050. Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2000. (Click here)