David DeMille

The Spectrum

Utah’s recent move to lower the legal blood-alcohol limit for DUIs to 0.05 percent has inspired a national restaurant association to take out full-page ads in neighboring Nevada warning tourists to avoid the Beehive State.

The restaurant trade group American Beverage Institute ran its full-page ad in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday, building on a campaign that has already run in Utah and that organizers say will expand into other states where the state’s tourists tend to travel from most.

It features a woman posing for a mock jail mug shot, holding a sign that describes her crime as having “had one drink with dinner,” and concludes, “time for Nevadans to rethink their vacation plans!”

State lawmakers passed HB155 this year, making Utah the first in the U.S. to lower its legal limit for blood-alcohol concentration from 0.08 to 0.05.

Representatives from restaurants, hospitality groups and other tourism-related industries have been highly critical of the law, which they say endangers the state’s burgeoning tourism industry by building on its already-notorious history of unusual alcohol laws.

Sarah Longwell, managing director for ABI, said the law may be well intentioned but it fails to target the most dangerous drunk drivers who cause the majority of DUI-related fatalities.

Offenders with blood alcohol concentrations of 0.15 and above have been responsible for 77 percent of alcohol-related fatalities in Utah, according to data kept by the Utah Department of Public Safety. Office statistics from 2015 showed that of 31 drivers who tested over the legal limit after being involved in a fatal accident, 23 tested at 0.15 or higher.

“It would be one thing if lowering the arrest level to 0.05 would actually save lives, but all it really does is distract law enforcement officials from targeting the dangerous offenders with BACs of 0.15 and above,” Longwell said.

Driver impairment differs by the individual, but the ABI has maintained that under a 0.05 limit, a 150-pound man could get a DUI after just two beers, while a 120-pound woman could be cited after a single drink.

A legal limit of 0.05 is common across many countries, especially in Europe, but states in the U.S. have typically maintained a 0.08 limit in recent years.

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The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, argued that lowering the limit would act as a “general deterrent,” encouraging fewer people overall to drink and drive. He suggested it could save 10 to 20 lives in the state every year.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a driver could have trouble steering and coordinating at the 0.05 level, and the National Transportation Safety Board has advocated for states to lover their legal limits.

Critics of the bill have argued Utah is a difficult place to take the first step because of it competes with neighboring states for tourism dollars and travelers may be put off by hearing about another new rule in the state.

Utah has a history of regulating alcohol more strictly than its neighbors, something often attributed to the state’s heavy Republican majority and the influence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which discourages consumption of alcohol. Nearly 90 percent of state lawmakers are members of the church, according to a December survey by the Salt Lake Tribune.

Tourists spent an estimated $8.2 billion in Utah in 2015, supporting some 142,500 total jobs in one of the state’s largest economic sectors, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.

The law does not take effect until Dec. 30, 2018, and Gov. Gary Herbert has suggested tweaking the law in the meantime, arguing there could be a less-restrictive compromise, such as lesser penalties for people who measure above 0.05 but below 0.08, but no changes have been made so far.

Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SpectrumDeMille. Call him at 435-674-6261.