By
The Associated Press
PHOENIX - A bill to lower Arizona's legal intoxication limit is advancing in the state Senate, and its sponsor predicts ultimate approval by the entire Legislature though possibly with delayed implementation.
The Government Committee on Monday voted 5-1 for the bill (SB1089) to lower the DUI limit to .08 from the current .10.
"Politically it would be a very difficult vote to cast," against the bill, said Sen. Andy Nichols, D-Tucson. "How can you vote against keeping people safe on the highways?"
Though the restaurant and bar industry has lobbied against similar proposals in past years, no industry lobbyists testified against the bill during Monday's hearing.
Nichols said opponents in past years were able to get his bills bottled up but that procedural changes adopted this year prevent those maneuvers.
Also, the bill has new support this year because a federal law threatens to partially withhold federal highway dollars from states with limits higher than .08.
"This is the tiger unleashed. It's out," Nichols said, adding that he thinks the lower limit is needed for public safety.
However, Nichols predicted that opponents will try to delay implementation of the lower limit.
He said he would accept a year's delay in order to get the lower delay adopted.
The bill next must clear the Transportation Committee before it reaches the full Senate.
Though some Government Committee members who voted for the bill said they wanted more data, the sole dissenting vote came from Sen. Pete Rios, D-Hayden.
Sen. Jack Jackson, D-Window Rock, voted for the bill, but said lowering the limits ignores a need to provide treatment for alcoholics.
Tucson resident Jan Blazer-Upchurch, a national officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, told the committee the bill would target one type of impaired driver.
Other bills go after drunker offenders, Blazer-Upchurch said after the hearing. "It's a package deal (because) we have different types of drivers," she said.
Blazer-Upchurch is the widow of a state Department of Public Safety Officer John Blazer, who was killed by a DUI driver in Tucson along Old Nogales Highway on Labor Day in 1990.
Another woman who lost a family member in a DUI crash told the committee that a .08 limit will make drivers think twice before getting behind the wheel if they've been drinking.
"They're going to stop and think," said Gilbert resident Janet Bosley, whose 18-year-old daughter was killed in Mesa in 1994.
