Wednesday September 5, 2001

The new DUI law that went into effect last weekend is meant to scare UA students into thinking twice before driving drunk, and it should.

While it would be preferable if students had the resolve and strength to make the decision not to drive when they are intoxicated, they don't. The state did the right thing in dropping the level for a DUI from 0.1 to 0.08.

Now students must do the right thing and not drive when we are impaired.

After the law went into effect at midnight Friday, the Southern Arizona Task Force, a collaboration of the Tucson Police Department, UAPD and Arizona Department of Public Safety, made 134 DUI arrests.

They made 84 arrests just on Friday night, which is three more arrests than they made the entire weekend in 2000.

That is just too many.

The consequences of drunken driving are severe for a good reason. When an individual is convicted of a DUI, he or she must spend a night in jail and pay a fine anywhere between $500 to $1,000 dollars. However, consequences that can be inflicted on a victim of drunken driving are far more severe.

The fact remains that alcohol is the leading factor in motor vehicle deaths in our state and our nation.

The consequences of killing someone while driving under the influence of alcohol are enormous. Not only is the driver responsible for the death of an innocent person simply because of his/her inability to make an intelligent decision, but he or she ruins the lives of the victim's family and loved ones.

If one is convicted of a DUI resulting in death, the punishment can be severe - as high as 15 years in jail, not to mention the lifetime of guilt.

Some have argued that lowering the BAC to 0.08 is a slippery slope argument and will have no effect on the current situation. Others exhort that we wouldn't need this law if the police properly enforced the old level. Both arguments hold some merit. However, everything must be done to curb this problem.

Pinpointing the exact level at which people become impaired is impossible. Some people are fully capable of driving above the legal limit, while medical studies suggest that others show signs of impairment at 0.05 percent. Although both exceptions exist, the fact is that just this weekend, people were driving with BAC levels between 0.08 and 0.1, and they were impaired.

According to statistics from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, more than 20 percent of all alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 1998 involved drivers with BAC levels below 0.1 percent. Last year, about 2 billion miles were driven at a BAC between 0.08 percent and .099 percent. Approximately 41,000 people were injured, and more than 1,000 were killed at this BAC.

Hopefully this new law will make people realize that they should not only not drive when drunk, but they shouldn't drive when they are the slightest bit impaired.