.08%, A DEADLY NUMBER BY DORIS AIKEN, RID FOUNDER

The recent rejoicing over passage of a reduced entry level for DWI from .10% BAC (blood alcohol count) to .08% as a national standard means that a 170 lb. man can quaff 4 beers or shots in an hour on an empty stomach to become legally intoxicated. Would you want to be a passenger in a car with such a driver? Not me!

In 1988, former Surgeon General Koop stated unequivocally that everyone is impaired to drive at .04% BAC. Why was it so excruciatingly difficult for years to get this small improvement to the national DWI safety standard? Because the alcohol industry feared (with some justification) that drinkers, as they should, will think BEFORE THEY DRINK RATHER THAN “when they drink”. Making that idea a part of the drinking culture may very well cause folks to drink less, or at least not before driving. That, in my opinion, will be the main, lasting benefit of this initial timid step toward a sane, national alcohol policy.

Now, or not now, since this reform takes effect 4 years down the road, another wimpish part of this law, the U.S. will still have a higher entry level for DWI than Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey, all at .05% BAC with Japan, Russia & Sweden at .00%-.02%.

Will .08% Save Lives? Did the DWI fatalities drop when Belgium & France lowered their limit to .05% in 1994 and 1995 respectively? YES! A 14% and 4% reduction the following year.

North Americans imbibe less alcohol per year than drinkers in other countries, half as much as the French do, for example, but have higher rates of alcohol-related fatalities. How can that be?

The U.S. & Canada are in the grip of a car culture, as well as an alcoholized environment, without the benefit of serious public transportation.

Visiting an English pub some years ago, enjoying my pint of bitters at a crowded bar filled with business people with bowler hats, briefcases & black stick umbrellas, the last call came at 10 PM. We all filed out in the rain to the nearby underground & bus stations. I walked to my cheap B&B.

A week later, I scrounged an early breakfast at a local pub in Paris. My orange juice was carefully squeezed by a wax-moustached bartender. A row of construction workers seated at the bar were wolfing down omelettes, dipping their baguettes into ice tea glasses filled with white wine. The bread-crumbed wine was downed in a few gulps before leaving the pub to climb aboard a city bus stopped outside the door at 7:30 AM.

The French die “naturally” of liver failure, mostly, while thousands of young Americans die in DWI crashes and in binge drinking events. The French have severe limits on alcohol advertising even though the wine industry is a prime economic staple. We Americans allow free rein for alcohol ads on our chief culture conveyor radio and TV. No pro-health ads are mandated to follow these ubiquitous promotions. Billions of tax dollars are allocated for PSAs against doing drugs but not a penny for alcohol counter-ads of any kind. Isn’t alcohol a drug too? And the most devastating of all drugs combined in terms of loss of potential years of life, family trauma, property destruction, business failure, addiction? OH YES!

I know not one person who died from smoking a cigarette, at any age: I am aware of more than 4000 (mainly teens) who died unexpectedly in a matter of hours after downing fast a bottle of vodka, or a quart pitcher of beer poured down the throat via a tubular funnel.

So, no, I can’t dance with joy at a .08% BAC reform that won’t even take hold for 4 years, and not be enforced for 6 years when States who don’t comply begin to lose their Federal highway funds. It’s a small but necessary move which may cause the thinking driver to be more careful. Some studies have shown that even the addicted drinking drivers have been more careful under the .08% law. Studies also show that in States which have had .08% for 2-3 years, alcohol sales did not. go down. Folks just drank differently..at home, or with a designated driver.

A last ditch effort by the National Restaurant Asso. to kill the .08% mandate launched a news advisory to their members in late September, stating that “a .08BAC mandate violates States’ rights and will not solve the problem of drunk driving”.

Driving in every State is not a right; it is a guarded privilege. Drivers move around this Nation all the time. The DWI laws must be uniform, understood and enforced. We have a much better chance to deter drunk driving & illegal alcohol sales as national crimes, than we do to deter illicit drug sales, although almost all the billions of tax dollars are allocated to the latter with no good results.

But back to the National Restaurant Asso. claims. They are right that the .08% reform won’t solve the DWI problem. It isn’t designed to do that. No single measure could. In fact, if plea bargaining out-of-alcohol is permitted, NO LAWS will make a difference since everyone arrested could hire a lawyer, take a plea to bald tire or parking on the pavement, pay a $50 fine and their lawyer thousands of dollars, and drive home with a valid license.

When RID-NYS (Remove Intoxicated Drivers) enabled passage of a “no plea out of alcohol” law in 1980, DWI lawyers’ fees plummeted. On Long Island the fees dropped from $1000 to $250 for a first time offender. The DWI deaths dropped swiftly too, saving more than 6000 motorists’ lives from 1981-1991. New York and Utah are STILL the safest States in which to drive. The alcohol-related deaths are under 25% of all highway fatalities, the lowest in the Nation for six consecutive years.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD, LEGISLATORS! We need a workable SNAP (sane national alcohol policy) from lawmakers, not an insane ineffective illicit drugs’ war policy. We need PSAs countering those cute alcohol promotions on the air waves, we need warnings on alcohol products that have a lethal dose when binged, (name that poison), we need limitations on where and when the drug alcohol can be promoted, and we need the Fairness Doctrine re- introduced in the national FCC (Federal Communications Commission) guidelines, after being vetoed by Reagan, veto-threatened by Bush and ignored by Clinton and the Congress. And we need a .05% DWI entry level with a .03% impaired standard, .02% for a repeat offender.

As for me, I’ve inched my deck chair on the Titanic a bit above the sink line with a .08% national standard. I’m grateful for small favors.

RID President, Doris Aiken and James Schaefer, retired director of the office of alcohol other drug abuse programming at the University of Minnesota, tell how to ensure a successful and safe party.

1. Plan the event carefully. Estimate how much alcohol to have on hand, based on the number of guests and the length of the party (one drink per guest per hour) and limit the amount of liquor you purchase in the first place.
2. Suggest the concept of the “designated driver”. One person is elected in advance to be the driver for the evening. That person  agrees not to drink.
3. Regard alcohol as the highly toxic substance it is, know its effects. Importantly, know yourself and how much you can consume.
4. Know the law in your state and follow it. At parties with youths,    be conscious of the drinking age and remember, serving minors is illegal. Hosts may be liable for impaired minors’ accidents.
5. Provide attractive, non-alcoholic drinks as a matter of course.   Make them look festive, not buried in the ‘fridge.
6. Avoid carbonated mixers in favor of non-carbonated ones (such fruit juice.) Carbonation speeds alcohol absorption.
7. Provide nutritious, attractively presented foods throughout the evening so the alcohol won’t be totally absorbed into the bloodstream.
8. Avoid having an open bar and be certain to measure all drinks. Enjoy, savor, and sip, but treat alcohol as a drug. Don’t push guests to drink. One drink per hour is about all the body can absorb. Adrink is a 1.5 Oz shot of 80 proof spirits, a 12 Oz can of beer and a 4 oz glass of wine.  Let guests ask for refills.
9. Avoid serving after dinner drinks (substitute coffee or another non-alcoholic beverage). And cut off drinks at least one hour before the party closes.
10. Recognize that drunkenness is neither healthy, humorous, nor safe.  Don’t excuse otherwise unacceptable behavior just because someone had “too much to drink”. Accepting drunkenness encourages alcohol misuse.
11. If in spite of precautions your guests are impaired, assume responsibility for their safety. Consider driving them home yourself, calling a taxi or encouraging them to stay overnight.
12. Always have on hand a list of telephone numbers for emergency health care, police or taxis.

The RID headquarters telephone keeps ringing with varied requests for help and information. The following are a sample of such calls.

Call from worried wife whose husband is out driving after drinking heavily: How can I stop my husband? He thinks he can drive better after a few drinks. He says he can handle his liquor.

Answer: If you live in New York, you can call 1-800-CURB-DWI, tell the person answering the call (an AT&T operator) that you know your husband is impaired and is driving. Give location of the area, a description of the car and/or license plate number. The call will be routed to the nearest police station. Your husband will be stopped by the police en route. Your call gives the police reasonable grounds to stop the car. This is a service of the AT&T Company.

Call back the next day: Thank you so much. My husband was stopped and breathalyzed. He was arrested for DWI and speeding. The judge took his license pending his arraignment. Now my husband  says I have to drive him to the court. I told him to get someone else. I don’t have to drive him, do I?

Answer: “No, you have no obligation to be his chauffeur. Do what is best for you.”

Caller: I get your newsletter and have faxed you a news article about a bar complaining that police patrol an intersection where a bar is located, frightening away customers (they claim) who fear being stopped by police when they leave the bar. Can you send a reply to the newspaper carrying this story?

Obviously I can’t send a letter to the editor. I’m glad that the police keep an eye on drunken driving but I can’t say so publicly.

Answer: RID will support police patrols with a faxed letter to the editor. Police don’t just stop a driver randomly only because they have exited a bar. The driver must exhibit visible signs of intoxication in his driving capability, especially when the bar is located at a busy intersection. The letter was faxed to the newspaper the same day of the call and published.

Ed. Note: The caller left the impression that he was an employee of the bar. All calls are confidential.

Caller: How can I get the arrest history of a person that was just arrested for DWI and speeding, who claims he is a first time offender. I know that’s not the case. I have the DMV driving record which doesn’t show prior speeding or impaired arrests.

Answer: The original arrest charges should be on the local court docket which is open to the public for review during business hours. When speeding and other charges are reduced to non-moving offenses like bald tires or parking on the highway, the DMV records usually won’t reflect the original charges or they will erase these violations in a very short time period.

Ed. Note: In one particular case DWI homicide case, the prosecutor could not get the prior driving record of the defendant to bolster his case that the driver may be a multiple offender, important in the sentencing phase of the trial. RID called on a local member who lived in the general area of the defendant to ask for the original charges listed on the court docket for the past two years. The information showed that the defendant had a long history of speeding arrests. This information was given to the prosecutor and to the Judge at sentencing. The convicted defendant was considered by the court to be a danger to society and was sent to prison for a minimum of three years. The judge read his driving history aloud, in court, before sentencing.

Each person reading this newsletter now knows various ways to be actively helpful to DWI victims. The RID Helpline numbers listed in the newsletter are a direct aid to callers everywhere and need support to keep them available as a public service. Please continue to support RID’s programs which are free for DWI victims.