Tuesday, January 18, 2000
Lawmakers try to lower DUI bar
Callahan wants blood alcohol threshold lowered to 0.08
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WILDER — A bipartisan group of lawmakers that includes a Northern Kentucky Democrat will try again to pass legislation that would lower the blood-alcohol level that determines drunken driving.
The bill will be introduced during a press conference in Frankfort this week, said House Majority Caucus Chairman Jim Callahan, D-Wilder, one of the sponsors.
The move to lower the threshold from a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 to 0.08 will probably run into the same buzz saw that shredded a similar bill in the 1998 legislative session.
The Louisville-based Kentucky Restaurant Association, which lobbied heavily against the 1998 bill, will again work to defeat the legislation.
“We are for tougher penalties” for drunken drivers, Mark Shircliffe, the association's executive vice president, said Monday.
“But we're for tougher penalties for repeat offenders and for people with high blood-alcohol levels.”
The association maintains that lowering the blood alcohol level police officers and courts use to determine if someone has been driving while intoxicated unfairly targets so-called social drinkers.
“You are essentially targeting the responsible drinker,” Mr. Shircliffe said. “They are the ones who obey laws and who won't have a glass of wine with dinner now because they don't want to risk breaking the drunk-driving laws.
“If you live on a street that has a speed limit of 35, but people are constantly doing 65, you don't stop them by lowering the speed limit to 25,” he said.
Mr. Callahan points out that the U.S. Department of Trans portation has said that some people with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 can show signs of impairment from drinking.
“I know this is a difficult subject,” Mr. Callahan said Monday. “But you can be impaired with a 0.08 blood-alcohol level. I don't think we're going to eliminate social drinkers with this, I just really believe we are going to make people more responsible when they drink.”
Mr. Callahan's daughter, Shari, was seriously injured in 1995 in a head-on collision on Ky. 9 with a man convicted of drunken driving.
Since the accident, she has spoken to youth and community groups about the dangers of drunken driving and the need for tougher laws, Mr. Callahan said.
Fifteen states use the 0.08 standard now. Like Kentucky, the threshold in Ohio and Indiana is 0.10.
Two years ago, the bill breezed through the House 90-4 but was killed in the Senate by two powerful members of Democratic leadership — President Larry Saunders and Majority Floor Leader David Karem.
At the time Mr. Karem said he was convinced by the restaurant association and others in the hospitality industry that changing the law would hurt Kentucky's restaurant, hotel and bar business.
Mr. Saunders said he simply did not believe that someone with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 is drunk. But with the bill stuck in a Senate committee, he offered supporters a deal.
If they could get 20 signatures on a petition to remove the bill from committee, he would make sure the bill received a vote on the Senate floor.
But the 20 senators could not be found and the bill died without a Senate vote.
In this year's Senate, the Democrats are no longer in charge, having lost their majori ty to the Republicans. It is not clear, however, if that change in leadership will have an impact on this particular bill, said Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger.
“We'll just have to see what happens when and if the bill gets to the Senate,” Mr. Westwood said Monday. “I'm not opposed to it. I would have supported it last time, but if never came up for a vote.”
The bill is backed by House members of both parties. Along with Mr. Callahan, the Democratic sponsors are Reps. Jack Coleman of Burgin and Robert Wilkey of Franklin. Republicans sponsoring the bill are Gary Tapp of Shelbyville and John Vincent of Ashland.
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