Carrot, Meet Stick- Governor Pawlenty

Carrot, Meet Stick- Governor Pawlenty came out storngly in favor of a .08% Blood Alcohol Level standard yesterday., says the Strib:

"The move to tighten Minnesota's standard for drunken driving received a high-level boost Thursday when Gov. Tim Pawlenty vowed to push aggressively for a legal threshold of .08 percent blood-alcohol concentration.

The governor said Minnesota, which currently has a .10 standard, should unquestionably follow the route taken by the 45 other states that have adopted the tougher threshold and reduced alcohol-related traffic fatalities by 5 to 12 percent.

This is yet another of those issues where emotion always trumps reason.

You can throw the facts at people and their lawmakers all day long - most drunk driving accidents and fatalities are caused by people who are far beyond .10, and the vast bulk of the problems are caused by repeat offenders who are most likely above .08 BAC at work. But all Mothers Against Drunk Driving has to do is march the Parade of Victims past the media and the legislature, and it's all over.

But there's a bigger reason for Pawlenty's very un-conservative stance:

The change, which he called a 'key initiative' of his administration, also is necessary to spare the state from losing up to $57 million in federal road construction money, Pawlenty said. The federal dollars hinge on passage of .08 legislation by Sept. 30, 2007.

'Minnesota should have been a leader on this,' said Pawlenty, a former state representative who coauthored House legislation that called for lowering the blood-alcohol standard.

The other states that still have a .10 standard are Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia.

So now, the police will be busy chasing people who had three beers instead of two, while the guy with 10 hits under his belt sneaks past.

But then, MADD is only intermittently about safety on the roads these days; they are more concerned with incipient prohibition.

Posted by Mitch at October 31, 2003 06:02 AM