New DUI law would have netted 47 drivers

Jen Lawson

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.

An additional 47 drivers would have been arrested at DUI checkpoints over the Labor Day weekend if the new blood alcohol limit of 0.08 had been in effect, Metro Police said.

Nevada's current level for proving driving under the influence is 0.10, but it will be lowered Sept. 23.

Over the Labor Day weekend, police tested 86 drivers for drunken driving at two DUI checkpoints. Of those, 21 were arrested for drunken driving and 47 were found to have a blood alcohol content in the 0.08 to 0.099 range.

Metro Police said they were surprised by the fact that that more than half of the drivers they checked last weekend were so close to being legally drunk.

"These numbers are extremely high," Capt. Rick Bilyeu of Metro's transportation safety bureau said. "The (number of drivers tested at) 0.08 and 0.09 are an aberration, not the norm."

Police typically find that about 25 percent of drivers tested at checkpoints have blood alcohol levels of 0.08 or 0.09, he said.

That's why, despite the weekend numbers, Bilyeu said its difficult to predict whether police will make more arrests under the new law.

"It may have very little effect in terms of the number of arrests we make," he said.

Police already had the authority to arrest motorists for impaired driving even with a blood alcohol level lower than 0.10. Under a different statute, a motorist can be arrested for impaired driving if his blood alcohol level is between 0.05 and 0.099 and he is involved in a traffic accident or if other obvious impairment is discovered through a field sobriety test.

The state corrections department estimated that the maximum number of new DUI cases will be three per year assuming the law will not change human behavior.

A study conducted by the General Accounting Office showed there was no conclusive evidence showing that lowering the blood alcohol content to 0.08 would have any impact on the number of drunken driving fatalities.

But the federal agency said that the 0.08 laws in combination with driver education efforts, driver's license revocations and others programs does have a positive impact on drunken driving behavior, and Bilyeu agreed.

"We know drunk drivers cost lives," Bilyeu said. "Our desire is to save lives. This (lower limit) is a tool that helps us meet our mission."