PSA: well … can’t say I’m surprised …

[96GradAlum]

Utah to become first state to lower DUI level to .05

[KiYi-Ute]

Was just about to post this. Such a joke. “It’s not a drinking bill” — bulls**t. It’s clearly a drinking bill. Just another way to increase DUI citations that will also hurt tourism and local restaurants whose profits come more from liquor sales than anything else. People either won’t order a drink at all, or will just stay home.

Glad I live within walking distance of my favorite bar and favorite restaurants.

Note: I’m not condoning drinking and driving, but 0.05 is incredibly low and should definitely not be considered impaired or unable to operate a vehicle. 0.08 seemed appropriate to me.

[PlainsUte]

Can a guy have a glass of wine or two with dinner and still drive home?

My understanding of previous limit was that one drink (glass of wine, beer, one shot) per hour would keep a typical person under the limit.

[Hoo Ray Who?]

I believe that the standard is three drinks the first hour, then one per hour thereafter. At least that is the standard for legal service of alcohol from the restaurant side of things. I would imagine that they’ll have to go and revamp all of THOSE laws now, a ripple effect if you will.

I am scratching my head at why they didn’y just push for stffer penalties for DUI under the .08 limit, since the nimbers bear out that the average BAC in an accident involving DUI is .17, accidents involving fatalaties around .21……..show me the proof that accidents, injuries, and deaths will be significantly reduced by getting the people driving between .05 and .08 off the road and I’ll buy in. It will ruin the lives of drivers who are less distracted than Eating while driving guy, Doing makeup while driving lady, or any other mundane, common distraction. 

The proof will be in the numbers. After a year of this law taking effect, if fatalaties, injuries, and DUI related accidents are significantly down, then I will gladly eat my words. My guess is that those won;t budge, but the State will parade how many more DUIs were written as the evidence that it’s working. And that’s a bunch of crap.

[PorterRockwell]

the Utah legislature SOP regarding alcohol laws is 1/3 Step forward and 15 steps backwards.  I wish EVERY National resturant chain would close up shop here and leave the State because of these assinine laws.  It’s NOT about public safety, it’s about punishing people whom consume ANY alcohol at all.

Six more years and I can retire to a state where being an adult is legal.

Dropping it to .05 is NOT going to solve anything.

People at .05 are not an imminent danger to themselves or others.

Want to make the roads here safer?  make texting and driving a PRIMARY offense that you can be stopped for, start the fine at $300.00 bucks.  That may have an impact.  You are far more likely to get hit by a texting/distracted driver than you are by a “drunk driver” here.

Lastly get the repeat offenders off the roads.  Minimum mandatory jail time after your second offense.

[UTEMAN]

And some wonder why I bought a house in Florida.  The winters are wonderful here and I can go to my favorite watering hole and have a drink and a cigar at the same time.  Life can be good.

But I am coming back to Utah next week and not really looking forward to it.

[96GradAlum]

Interesting that I get 2 down votes for a PSA … I must have a reputation around here lol!

[Daedalus]

There’s more to it than that.

This is the most ridiculous “compromise” to get rid of the Zion Curtain law.  The whole point of the original proposal was to give restaurants incentive to build in Utah and our so-called “representatives” wrote in a whole bunch of riders that seem nearly impossible to accommodate.  Effem.  They don’t care about industry, tourist income, etc., just their so-called righteousness.

If Herbert were smart, he’d see how awful it is for Utah and veto.  But he ain’t.  This is the one thing I most respected about Huntsman as governor — he saw what was good for the state and brought most of our liquor laws to the 21st century.

[Tony (admin)]

I thought the Zion curtain was to prevent under age from witnessing drinks being poured and being scarred for life, and destined to a future of drunkenness. What would the DUI law have to do with that?

[ironman1315]

Although, In Utah’s defense, most of Europe has a .05 BAC or lower. And the National Transportation Safety Board proposed dropping the BAC to .05 as well. So, it’s not like Utah just made this up out of whole cloth. Although, I still find it stupid.