I have always had a beef with how they report alcohol related crashes. "Forty percent (17,401) of all fatalities were alcohol-related..."
They don't mention the other activities or circumstances.
My main one is that drinking typically takes place in the evenings, and that exhaustion is probably a bigger contributor to major accidents than barely detectable BAC.
However, the federal government is holding the states hostage over rediculously low threshold levels of BAC. We are talking about a level which is marginally above the range of error of the testing equipment.
Stupid, unskilled, unattentive, uncaring drivers are the real lingering problem on our roads. Not the handfull of people that the government and insurance industry can't currently make money off of because they blew a .08 instead of a .10. :roll:
They need to enforce the laws we already have before trying to find ways to enhance the revenue stream from their biggest cash cow. (DUI's)
Now I in no way disagree that significantly impaired individuals are a danger to everyone on the road. However, they aren't really going out of their way to keep these people from driving. They have to get like 5 or 6 DUI's before they ever put an ingition interlock on their cars. At that point the government has made 10's of thousands of dollars off that person in penalties and court costs, and probably just as much in the kick-back they get from the insurance company's increased premiums on that driver... especially now that that driver is forced to have an SR-22.
But the way things are heading, you can have ONE glass of wine with dinner and blow over the new proposed limit on a breathalyzer. And you are in NO WAY impaired at that point.
This is ALL about making money under the guise of public safety, and it is drawing attention away from enforcement of existing laws that could ACTUALLY make the roads safer.