Proposed Washington state bill would reduce legal BAC limit
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Washington state lawmakers have proposed a bill that would lower the state’s legal blood alcohol concentration limit for driving.
Under current law, drivers are considered unfit to operate a vehicle if their BAC levels are over 0.08%. According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, that limit was last established in 1999 — and before then, the state enforced a limit of 0.10%.
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House Bill 2196, which was introduced to the House Committee on Community Safety, Justice, & Re-entry on Thursday morning, would drop the legal limit to 0.05%. Legislators have been pushing for the new reduction in hopes that it would help prevent traffic deaths statewide.
Between 2017 and 2021, the Traffic Safety Commission reported that more than 50% of deadly crashes in Washington involved a driver who was impaired by drugs or alcohol. The commission additionally reported that 32% of deadly crashes involved an alcohol-positive driver.
During Thursday’s House meeting, Washington’s senior policy advisor for transportation also told lawmakers that the state saw at least 800 traffic deaths in 2023 — the highest recorded number in 33 years.
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“While national statistics are starting to show that other states are plateauing and even started to decrease in their number of fatalities, Washington state is going in the opposite direction,” Debbie Driver said. “These are preventable losses of life, many of which could be saved if individuals simply chose not to drink and to drive, and that’s the goal of this bill to change that decision, to change that behavior of drinking and driving which is a deadly combination.”
Washington Rep. Brandy Donaghy, HB 2196’s chief sponsor, noted that police officers would still look for the same impaired behaviors before conducting a DUI arrest. She added that the bill shouldn’t have a “marked” impact on the state’s bar and restaurant industries.
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A 2013 National Institute of Health study in the National Library of Medicine found that the average man of 170 pounds would need to drink at least four alcoholic beverages in two hours in order to exceed a BAC of 0.05%. For women around 137 pounds, it would take at least three drinks in the same amount of time.
Utah was the first U.S. state to drop its legal BAC limit to 0.05% in December 2018. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the state’s fatal crash rate fell by 19.8% during the following year.
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