Changes in DUI laws could help accident victims
A proposed South Carolina law would require all DUI offenders to use ignition interlock devices, also an NTSB recommendation.
June 13, 2013
Changes in DUI laws could help accident victimsArticle provided by Law Offices of Lori S. Murray
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In South Carolina 315 people died in drunk driving accidents in 2011, according to the state's chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Across the nation, drunk driving kills and injures thousands of people every year, says the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB recently proposed a number of actions aimed at reducing the toll of drunk driving. The NTSB's rationale for its current recommendations is that no headway is being made in the effort to reduce drunk driving fatalities, which have been hovering at about 10,000 per year for some time.
A lower blood alcohol level?
Perhaps the most controversial recommendation from the NTSB is that states should lower the blood alcohol level that defines driving while intoxicated. Each state sets its own threshold to determine DUI, but all 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted 0.08 as the legal blood alcohol limit for DUI. Federal highway construction funding is available only to states that adopted the 0.08 blood alcohol limit.
Now the NTSB recommends 0.05 as the blood alcohol limit to determine if someone is driving under the influence of alcohol, the standard in most industrialized nations. Government statistics indicate that a driver with a blood alcohol level of 0.05 is 38 percent more likely to have an accident than a sober driver. A blood alcohol level at the current DUI standard 0.08 makes a driver 169 percent more likely to crash. Therefore, these numbers suggest that actively lowering the level could help to alleviate the potential for crash victims from intoxicated drivers.
Other preventive measures
Among the NTSB's other recommendations is that states require every driver convicted of DUI to install and use an ignition interlock device. Ignition interlock requires a driver to blow into the device, which then analyzes the driver's blood alcohol level and will not allow the vehicle to start if alcohol is detected in the breath sample.
The South Carolina legislature has been considering a bill that would require ignition interlock for first-time DUI convictions, MADD reports; at present, state law already requires these devices for repeat DUI offenders. The universal ignition interlock requirement NTSB advocates is now the law in 17 states. A dozen more states require ignition interlock when a driver is convicted of DUI with an especially high blood alcohol level, 0.15 or greater.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ignition interlock devices prevent DUI. When these devices are in use, repeat drunk driving is 67 percent less likely.
Compensation for victims
When a person is injured or killed by a negligent drunk driver, it is important to seek the advice of a personal injury attorney, because compensation may be available for the harm that was done. A lawsuit can result in payment of medical expenses, wages lost due to the injury or death, and an award for pain and suffering.