Colorado residents who occasionally have a drink or two while socializing and have a thoughtful eye while doing so on safety and state laws regarding drinking and driving have a pretty good gauge on DUI enactments and enforcement strategies.
Most Colorado motorists who from time to imbibe an alcoholic beverage outside the home are fully cognizant of state officials’ harsh and uncompromising stance toward alcohol consumption and subsequent behind-the-wheel activity. They know that enforcement officials have plenary powers to employ a wide arsenal of tools and strategies geared toward the detection and potential arrest of motorists who have consumed alcohol.
Roving saturation patrols might reasonably come to mind. Or perhaps sobriety checkpoints. A battery of field sobriety tests is often administered by a police officer who has stopped a motorist on alleged grounds of driving while intoxication. Motorists often undergo breath or blood testing procedures.
As reported in a recent media article focusing on a drinking-related recommendation advanced by the National Transportation Safety Board, that agency is now urging that Colorado and every other state adopt a policy that has long existed in many other countries across the world.
That is this: cut the national blood-alcohol content threshold denoting drunk driving from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent.
That would obviously spell a radical curtailment and have vast implications across the country for myriad business enterprises, law enforcement efforts and outcomes in specific cases.
Suffice to say, the proposal is not being universally endorsed. Most notably perhaps, and as noted in the above-cited article, even the ardent anti-drinking group Mothers Against Drunk Driving “hasn’t taken an official position” on the NTSB’s suggestion.
A general consensus among many law enforcers and state officials is that a wide variety of tools are already available to effectively police drivers on the road.
We will of course keep our readers fully apprised in the event that any material updates emerge regarding BAC recommendations and policy.