The NTSB’s report is called 'Reaching Zero.' | REUTERS DUI limit angers alcohol lobby

Federal safety overseers want states to lower their threshold for drunken driving by nearly 40 percent, to the consternation of the food and beverage industry.

The call for reducing the blood-alcohol limit to 0.05 percent is the most eye-catching item among 10 nonbinding recommendations that the National Transportation Safety Board approved Tuesday, with the aim of reducing the number of impaired drivers on the roads.


It’s been less than a decade since states adopted the current 0.08 percent limit, spurred partly by Congress’s threat to revoke some of their highway funding. The U.S. Department of Transportation should study whether it can similarly use highway money as leverage this time, the NTSB said.

The board also called for states to increase enforcement checkpoints and require drunken drivers’ cars to feature “ignition interlock” devices that would prevent them from starting unless the motorists could prove they’re not intoxicated.

But it’s the blood-alcohol number that is grabbing headlines. American Beverage Institute Managing Director Sarah Longwell called the proposal “ludicrous.”

Longwell said a woman might crack the threshold after just a glass of wine, exactly the opposite of the type of drunken driving scofflaw that law enforcement should crack down on. She said the change would make people “feel uncomfortable having a drink.”

“This recommendation criminalizes behavior that is completely responsible,” she said. “It targets moderate and responsible social drinkers.”

Instead, Longwell says the focus should be on repeat offenders and people who have blown far past the 0.08 percent threshold.

But Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), whose panel has jurisdiction over highway safety, called the proposal a “good idea” and said he embraces the idea of “making tougher standards,” although he indicated it will be difficult to get past many governors.

Another Commerce Democrat, Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), agreed that tougher drunken driving rules make sense, at least in theory. “A lower standard would send a stronger message,” Cantwell said.

Longwell fears that states trying to get ahead of the curve on safety will quickly embrace the recommendation.

“The fact is the NTSB recommendations carry a lot of weight,” Longwell said. “You will see states try to pick this up and we’re going to be there to tell them that science doesn't support this.”

Highway funding would also provide powerful pressure if Congress opts to adopt that route, she said. “This is how seatbelt laws were passed,” Longwell said.

But a source who closely follows safety issues in the states doesn’t see them playing along with the NTSB recommendation.

“No way in hell will this happen,” the source said, adding that the NTSB’s focus on more moderate drinkers “is in some ways great news to ABI because they tie the whole effort to, ‘Look we’re going after social drinkers.’”

Mothers Against Drunk Driving — a leader in bringing the national blood-alcohol standard to 0.08 percent from the previous 0.10 percent— is deferring a stance on the new proposal. MADD prefers its own campaign to eliminate drunken driving, which overlaps with some of the NTSB’s recommendations by centering on high-visibility enforcement, the development of advanced safety technology and increased use of ignition interlocks.

“If we can do those things and do them well we really believe we can eliminate drunk driving in America” and save up to 8,000 lives a year, said J.T. Griffin, a public policy analyst for MADD. Still, he cheered the NTSB for getting the topic back in the headlines.

“Anytime you bring awareness to drunk driving is a good thing,” Griffin said. “And calling attention to the 10,000 deaths a year is certainly welcome.”

The Governors Highway Safety Association said the group agrees that a “comprehensive strategy to address drunk driving” is needed but wasn’t yet ready to embrace the lower threshold. It said it will “consider” the NTSB’s recommendations.

The NTSB’s recommendations are in pursuit of a goal of bringing deaths from impaired driving to zero, down from nearly 10,000 in 2011.

The safety board has seen some progress in recent years. Chairwoman Debbie Hersman noted in remarks ahead of the vote on the recommendations that 21,000 people died because of alcohol-impaired driving in 1982, or about half of crash deaths. Since 1995, the fraction of crash deaths attributable to impaired driving has been stuck at about one-third, though Hersman said that’s still “much too high.”

“Alcohol-impaired crashes are not accidents,” she said. “They are crimes. They can — and should — be prevented. The tools exist. What is needed is the will.”

But not everything the NTSB has championed in recent years has flown in Washington. Hersman recommended a nationwide ban on cellphone use while driving in 2011, an effort that has picked up little traction on the federal level even as states are continuing to beef up their distracted-driving laws.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 4:10 p.m. on May 14, 2013.