Eleven people were killed in Oregon in 2017 in crashes involving drivers who had a blood alcohol content level between the current legal limit and the lower level proposed by Sen. President Peter Courtney.
That’s according to an analysis of impaired driving data provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive. The 11 people died in in crashes in which the driver had a blood alcohol content of .05 or greater but less than .08 – the current state law. Twelve people suffered major injuries – such as being knocked unconscious, broken bones or severe bleeding. Another 49 people experienced other less-significant injuries in the incidents.
The Legislature meets in Salem starting Tuesday, where it may consider whether to lower the state’s legal drunken driving limit to .05. If the bill moves through the Democrat-controlled lawmaking body to Gov. Kate Brown’s desk, Oregon would join Utah as the only states to lower the drunken driving limit. The bill, designated as Senate Bill 7, is in the Senate Judiciary Committee but hasn’t been scheduled for a hearing.
According to preliminary 2017 figures, 439 people died on Oregon roads the same year, at least 112 of whom died in crashes where drivers were legally impaired under current statute.
Courtney, the veteran Salem lawmaker and longtime Senate president, said his bill is about more than just those numbers.
He said while the 11 people killed could be one of your family members – your wife, your daughter, your son – his bill is about changing the culture of the state.
“I just want my state to one day be able to say, ‘They’ve got the best wine in the nation, go there. They’ve got the best beer in the country, go there,” Courtney said of Oregon. “But I tell you one thing about Oregon, buddy, you can drink, but you don’t drink and drive.”
Courtney said that culture shift would be “remarkable.” He likened the moment to the birth of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the early 1980s and the slow national movement to create a .08 limit. Oregon followed Utah’s lead in 1983, too.
“I think it’s time that we make another statement,” he said.
But Courtney said while he doesn’t want to make any predictions, he believes the bill faces an uphill fight.
The American Beverage Institute, a nationwide lobbying group, has already raised questions about Utah’s law and Oregon’s proposal. In a December statement after Utah’s law went into effect, the institute said the bill “will do little to save lives.” The industry group noted similar proposals in Washington, Hawaii, New York and Delaware “gained little traction.”
“Instead of targeting moderate and responsible drinkers, as this .05 law does, limited traffic safety resources should be focused on the high-BAC and repeat drunk driving offenders responsible for the vast majority of alcohol-related traffic fatalities,” spokesman Jackson Shedelbower said in a statement.
During the past five years available, 41 people died in Oregon crashes where the driver had a blood alcohol content between .05 and .08.
The National Safety Council, a nonprofit advocacy group that focuses on preventable deaths, said the risk of a drunken driving crash spikes rapidly at .03 blood alcohol content, and at .05 the risk is 40 percent higher than when a driver has not consumed any alcohol. A 2007 Journal of Safety Research report analyzing crash data from 28 states estimated lowering the legal drinking limit nationwide would save 538 lives each year.
“In order to reduce alcohol-involved crash rates, there is a need to educate the American public about the safety effects of low alcohol concentration levels in order to facilitate culture change,” the safety council wrote in a 2016 policy paper. “There is some evidence that targeting lower alcohol concentrations also reduces the incidence of driving at higher alcohol concentrations.”
Courtney said he has no intention of being a “do-gooder” or preventing responsible drinkers from enjoying themselves. He said the .05 level still allows people to drink. Depending on the weight, age, and gender of the drinker, .05 could represent three drinks an hour for a 160-pound man or roughly two drinks for a 140-pound woman, according to federal statistics.
Courtney said people will read what they want into the data, but he said the data don’t capture the near misses or other incidents where drivers get away.
Impairment starts at the first drink, Courtney said.
Driving is dangerous enough, Courtney said. “The technology inside cars has increased, let alone the ubiquitous Bluetooth and cell-phone uses. He said “obstacles” outside, such as bicyclists, have increased, too.
“You really have to be on your game,” he said of driving.-- Andrew Theen
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen
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