The Colorado Springs District Attorney is in hot water for drinking, then driving his government-issued vehicle. The whole mess is raising serious questions about our state’s drunk driving laws.
More on that in a moment on the Face The State Radio Minute.
First things first, here: It’s wrong to drink and drive, especially when you’re driving a government vehicle paid for by the taxpayers. A Colorado Springs TV station caught the local DA, John Newsome, red handed when he had a few cold ones, then drove home. That’s a no-no.
But the ensuing controversy raises good questions about our state’s drunk driving laws, which are almost designed to trap anyone into breaking the law, even if their drinking doesn’t impair the ability to drive.
Drivers are liable for a DUI charge if their blood alcohol level is at .08, but in reality, you can be cited for a level as low as .05, too, on a lesser charge. What the DA did was wrong, but the debate over our DUI laws is still worth having.
For FaceTheState.com, I’m Brad Jones.
Laws Are Just Fine
On May 14th, 2008 prk166 says:
As someone who's been able to experiment with some drinking, then driving, then @ 1/2 hour later being home for the night with access to a breathalyzer (good to live with a cop :) ), I don't have an issue with the laws are they are. I quickly learned that what I thought was a pint too much was only getting me to barely break .04 (.042 was the worst). I did not at all feel comfortable driving at that level because I could tell I was more than just buzzed. Having the possibility for lesser charges starting at .05 seems perfectly reasonable. What you're saying it that while you're not fully impaired, you need to show you can handle the difference.
Don't get me wrong, MADD can shove it's not-so-clevery disguised prohibition campaign up it's collective hind end. There just comes a point where there is enough alcohol in your bloodstream that it is impairing your reaction time, judgement and such to the point that it's impacting your driving. The question is where that line is. Having 2 levels to me makes sense. You just don't go from 100% fine to 100% impaired.