Many Nevada officials oppose stiffer DUI rules

Monday, March 9, 1998 | 8:49 a.m.

Officials criticized last week's 62-32 Senate vote to force states to adopt a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol threshold, a standard rejected four straight sessions by Nevada legislators.

Fifteen states already have adopted that level, while 35 - including Nevada - use a more lenient 0.10 percent.

Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both D-Nev., voted against the federal legislation.

"In terms of this amendment, he could not support something the state Legislature has already turned down," Reid spokeswoman Jenny Backus told the Reno Gazette-Journal, adding Reid personally favors the 0.08 standard.

"He thinks it should be left up to the states," said Bryan spokeswoman Karen Kirchgasser.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said he opposes the legislation, but the state couldn't afford to ignore it because of a potential loss of $10 million in federal highway funds.

The proposal, which moves on to the House, calls for non-complying states to lose 5 percent of such funds in fiscal 2002 and 10 percent in following years.

"That's their usual tactic, threatening us with the loss of money," Raggio said. "I'm not so sure Congress will pass it. But if it does, we'll have to support it. We can't risk losing that money."

The state's gambling industry repeatedly has opposed efforts to lower the standard.

"The casinos didn't want to get too tough on visitors," Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, said. "They maintained that 0.10 is a pretty adequate standard."

Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, an outspoken critic of federal intervention in state matters, cites recent declines in DUI-related deaths on Nevada highways.

"Point-one-0 is fine. It's working," Rhoads said. "Police forces at all levels have enforced 0.10 better in the past four years."

But other Nevada officials support the federal legislation, saying the death rate in alcohol-related crashes has inched up in the past two years.

Paul Corbin, state highway safety coordinator, said a three-year study of four states - California, Utah, Oregon and Maine - showed an average 19 percent drop in alcohol-related deaths after 0.08 was enacted.

"It's proven to work," he said. "(It would) get more drunks off the highway and discourage people from drinking and driving."

Corbin estimated the lower threshold would save at least 13 lives a year in Nevada.

The tougher standard also is embraced by Gov. Bob Miller, and police chiefs and sheriffs statewide.

"In principle, 0.08 is legislation he should and will support in the state," said Miller spokesman Richard Urey.

Laurel Stadler, president of the northern Nevada chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, also supports the lower standard.

"If the federal government has to step in and force the states to do what's right, so be it," she said.