Magic drunken driving number in limbo
Vilsack, MADD push .08 BAC, but
Republican leaders say issue dead.
By MADHUSMITA BORA
Courier Staff Writer
DES MOINES
Activists Monday turned up the heat on legislators to tighten Iowa's drunken driving laws.
Mothers Against Drunken Driving and Gov. Tom Vilsack lined up behind a bill lowering Iowa's legal blood alcohol content (BAC) to .08. The measure is in danger of being dropped for the session under the funnel rule. National MADD President Millie Web, who is touring the state to garner support for the bill, emphasized "time lost equals lives lost."
"By adopting .08 as the legal limit for drunk driving, the Iowa state Legislature will reduce alcohol-related fatalities by more than 8 percent," Web said. "I urge the Iowa Legislature to join us in our efforts to adopt this life-saving law and to work for its swift passage."
Twenty states along with District of Columbia have the .08 figure as the legal definition of drunken driving. Vilsack said it is a priority issue for him.
"This is about saving lives," he said. "It is a relatively simple bill. All it does is it takes the standard from .1 to .08. It's an easy bill to understand and pass, and there's no reason why it hasn't or can't pass this session."
Vilsack, who talked about the issue in his Condition of the State address, introduced a bill this year to reduce the blood alcohol limit, but it is stalled in a Senate committee. The bill must come out of committee in one chamber and get floor approval in the other in order to survive this session.
"I would ask the Legislature to take necessary steps to ensure that this measure survives the funnel," Vilsack said. "We have seen this Legislature act quickly if it needs to, and this is an issue they ought to act quickly on."
But GOP leaders said the issue wouldn't see any action this session.
"This will not be addressed in the Legislature or floor this year," said House Majority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City. "We have limited resources to spend in the state, and we ought to spend those resources getting current law breakers off the road and not turning more people into criminals."
Last year President Bill Clinton signed into law a measure requiring all states to comply with the .08 standard. As an incentive, Congress provided revenue to the states adopting the measure. According to the governor's office for drug control policy, Iowa could receive about $2 million per year for the next three years if it complies. Failure by the Legislature to pass this law by 2003 would cost Iowa $4.7 million in federal transportation dollars, and the number could go up to $18.7 million by 2007.
Senate Majority Leader Stewart Iverson, R-Dows, said there is some frustration involved with the federal mandate.
"I certainly do not advocate anyone driving while they have been drinking," Iverson said. "But this is a case where the federal government has said to the states you have to pass .08 by 2003 or we are not going to send your own money back to you. This is very frustrating for the states."
Between 1995 and 1999, there were 35 fatal crashes in Iowa that involved drunken drivers with a blood alcohol content of between .08 and .1, according to state figures. In 1999 alone, 160 people died from alcohol-related traffic crashes, accounting for nearly 33 percent of all traffic fatalities statewide.
"It's time to get this bill off the floor of the House and Senate and make it into a law," said Wanda Farrell, a MADD member from Hudson
"What are we waiting for? Is it going to take one of them (legislators) in our shoes before they get this passed?" said Farrell, who lost her 16-year-old daughter to a drunken driver in 1995.
