Blood Alcohol Content Essay

The thought of alcohol being involved in opprobrious crashes brings about an emotional response. Recently, in that respect has been a movement based on emotion kinda than logic to permute a certain drinking and driving law. This involves saturnine the kind Alcohol Content (BAC) from 0. 10% to 0. 08% nationwide. However, this aid is misdirected. By looking at my personal experiences, statistics, and current laws, it is clear that there is no need for humiliateing the BAC. First off, I do non drink.Yet, Ive had many experiences relating to drinking and driving through my friends. One affair Ive noticed is that it is extremely hard for people to tell if they argon legally drunk or not. Further more(prenominal), I vex never comprehend any of my friends say that they feel that they should drive home because they consent l i(prenominal) a . 09% BAC. The law has very little effect on how many drinks a person decides to consume. Therefore, lowering the legal drunk limit depart not result in people acting more responsible. Supporters of lowering the BAC like Judith Lee Stone in her essay YES think they atomic number 18 targeting the problem of drunken driving, but the real problem lies within the high BACs. Ninety three percent of fatal accidents be 0. 10% BAC and above, and half(prenominal) of those ninety three percent have a BAC of 0. 20% and above. The bonny BAC for fatal accidents is at actually at 0. 17%. This seems like a more logical target for new laws then 0. 08%. Furthermore, Stone asks Who would compulsion their children in a car driven by someone who has consumed three, four, or even more beers in an hour (Stone 46)? I couldnt entertain more.However, this common argument from the pro-0. 08% side is more like a raise responsibility question. They use this to manipulate our emotion by putting an unsophisticated child in an improbable and unrelated situation. She also goes on to terra firma, A study at Boston University found that 500 to 600 fewer highroad deaths would occur annually if all states adopted 0. 08% (Stone 47). On the other hand, a similar study at University of North Carolina shows no significant change after their adoption of 0. 08%. Which study is correct?Most likely, both have some truthfulness. It could be either way depending on the state. The lowering of the Blood Alcohol Content percentage law is unnecessary and useless. Nevertheless, some states have already moved to the 0. 08%, and we hear the argument It makes no sense for a driver to be legally drunk in one state but not in another(prenominal) (Stone 46). To that, I ask a couple questions of my own. wherefore can I carry a obscure gun in one state and not another? Why is it that I can drive a certain speed in one state, but a different speed in another?The response to those questions and Stones statement is all of the above be state laws. At this point, the federal government seems to get confused. In October 2000, sex act passed a la w that uses the states money against them. It asserts that if a state doesnt lower its BAC percentage to 0. 08% by 2003, it will lose two percent of its street money. States that dont like the law will be compel to vote for it because they are desperate for highway construction money. Strings shouldnt be attached to this money.What are lost in all of this are the current laws for drunk driving. Driving while impaired is already wicked whether the person seeks 0. 04% or 0. 10%. Courts can use alcohol test of 0. 04% and higher as evidence of impairment. Its at 0. 10% where a person is legally drunk and cannot legally operate a vehicle. Therefore, its not as if people who test 0. 08% are going undisciplined like the other side would have you believe. In conclusion, anybody who picks out one particular aspect and says that it is not working hasnt looked that the whole problem.The chairwoman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Brian O Neill, says that hed rather see reso urces directed toward enforcing existing drunken driving laws. Hopefully, with more education, more awareness, and more enforcement we can successfully reduce drinking and driving fatalities. Bibliography Stone, Judith Lee. Yes. variation and Writing Short Arguments. Ed. William Vesterman. Mountain View, California Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000. 46-47. Word cypher 702.