A common benchmark in the United States for determining when a driver is legally drunk is not doing enough to prevent alcohol-related crashes that kill about 10,000 people each year and should be made more restrictive, transportation safety investigators say. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended on Tuesday that all 50 states adopt a blood-alcohol content (BAC) cutoff of 0.05 compared to the 0.08 standard on the books today and used by law enforcement and the courts to prosecute drunk driving. "Most Americans think that we've solved the problem of impaired driving, but in fact, it's still a national epidemic," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said.
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For a decade, 0.08 has been the blood alcohol benchmark to consider a driver intoxicated
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National Transportation Safety Board would like to see a nationwide 0.05 level
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The board would also like to see swifter action on taking away offenders' licenses
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Restaurant, beer industries say focus should be on repeat offenders
A beer industry trade group said it would examine @placeholder's recommendation for lowering the blood-alcohol threshold.