Any person in Tennessee who has ever known someone who has been killed due to the negligence of a drunk driver understands the senselessness of these accidents. Despite some improvements in the past several decades, too many lives continue to be lost in drunk driving crashes. Finally, some are starting to push for yet even tougher actions in order to prevent more of these deaths.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently published data that shows strong researched-based support for the fact that after consuming alcohol, a person’s cognitive functioning begins to decline far sooner than when their blood alcohol content reaches 0.08 percent. In fact, such reduced abilities are seen when BAC levels reach 0.05 percent. That is nearly half of the current legal limit at which a person may be arrested for drunk driving.
With this in mind, the organization is calling for states to amend their laws and lower the 0.08 threshold to 0.05 percent. This would mean that a driver may be considered drunk and able to be arrested at a much lower BAC level. The goal of this change is to not only reduce but to completely eradicate crashes in which alcohol is a factor.
WebMD explains that additional efforts are sought to support this goal. These include making the sale of alcoholic beverages more controlled so as to prevent minors from obtaining alcohol. Increasing taxation on beverages may raise prices and therefore making it slightly harder or less enticing for people to want to afford alcoholic beverages.