Posted on 03/17/2008 2:34:15 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Bill on tap to dry up ALL drinking, driving By Laurel J. Sweet and Mike Underwood Monday, March 17, 2008 - Updated 10m ago
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A Taunton state representative wants to make Massachusetts the first state to declare driving under the influence of alcohol - even one green beer - flat out illegal.
Rep. James Fagan’s legislation would slash the current .08 blood-alcohol limit recognized nationwide as the standard for being legally drunk to .02. Federal government research indicates a 160- to 240-pound man would register .02 sipping one glass of wine over the course of an hour.
“I think my friends in the Legislature are going to say, ‘Fagan, have you lost your mind?’ ” the Democrat and criminal defense attorney said yesterday. “You can drink all you want, but you can’t drive. Plain and simple.”
Other countries have set a .02 blood-alcohol limit for driving, including Sweden, Poland, Russia and Norway.
Though his cocktail of choice is a chocolate frappe with a strawberry ice cream chaser, Fagan, 60, who said he has represented “thousands” of accused drunken drivers at trial, is no teetotaller.
He simply believes that allowing people to imbibe and drive up to a point encourages “legalized alcohol gambling” by those raising a bottle to their lips and guessing when enough is enough - if at all.
By eliminating shades of drunkenness, Fagan suggests the responsible social drinker would be protected from arrest if caught with boozy breath because another driver hit them or they were stopped for a broken headlight.
“There’s absolutely no denying the amount of personal tragedy and social harm that results from people who drive impaired,” Fagan said, “but should we publicly Taser them? Cauterize their tonsils so they can’t drink? We’re running out of punitive measures.”
Ron Bersani, 61, of Marshfield, whose 13-year-old granddaughter Melanie Powell’s death by a drunken driver in 2003 inspired Melanie’s Law, is one of the state’s best-known proponents of cracking down on lushes at the wheel. But even he thinks lowering the blood-alcohol limit to .02 is “foolish.”
“You couldn’t even go to a wedding and have a toast,” he said.
Revelers at yesterday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston were also finding Fagan’s bill hard to swallow.
“If this becomes law, then they’d better improve public transportation,” said Mike Hickey of Southie.
Margo Downey of Brighton said the proposal, to be heard tomorrow at the State House, borders on zero tolerance.
“This is just a huge sledgehammer to everyone,” Downey said. “If the buses or trains ran all night then it might be acceptable, but at the moment this is just unfair.”
Fagan realizes his bill isn’t a fool-proof deterrent any more than any punitive law.
“Society in general needs to recognize that no amount of laws will ultimately do away with everyone who intends to abuse the situation,” Fagan said. “But right now, we’re all in jeopardy. It’s just a matter of accident, fate or the whim of a police officer on any given night.” lsweet@bostonherald.com
Why stop at .02? If you’re going to go all the way, then just make it .00, so people can get arrested when they have a teaspoon of NyQuil. Sheesh
The responsible social drinkers will OBEY this law and the drunks will ignore it and drive anyway.
No they won't. The trial lawyers like Fagan would go bankrupt.
F-in’ retards. The cops will be so overwhelmed busting people who’ve driven after one drink that they won’t catch the guy who’s at .25%.
I’ll bet this doesn’t apply to the Kennedy’s.
Just outlaw booze.
Oh yeah, we tried that once.
Getting close to the limit of accuracy of the devices.
This is dumb. But what do you expect from that communist paradise?
So to have a glass of wine with dinner one now has to hire a cab? Why can’t we just outlaw lawmakers??
If you cannot stop the drunk drivers at .08%, how the heck are you gonna stop the not quit drunk at .02%?
. . .
Fagan, 60, who said he has represented “thousands” of accused drunken drivers at trial, is no teetotaller.
No conflict of interest here...
Make no mistake. Given some time, what Rep. Fagan is proposing will eventually be the Law of the Land everywhere. The Nanny State knows no bounds.
Enforcement by BAC is like enforcement by radar gun - it puts cops on the side of the road reading arbitrary numbers off gadgets they don’t understand.
Like running out of your lane or blowing a stop sign is any less dangerous when you’re sober!
Always refuse to blow for the BAC. Those things were rigged for years in Mass. when I was growing up there. A retired judge admitted as much years ago.
That guy is going to drive regardless of the laws.
I've seen this coming and as such I won't drive after consuming any alcohol. Even one beer. For me, a DUI would end my career. It is just too risky. If I go out and drink I will either walk or take a cab to my destination. This way I am forced to find a way home that doesn't preclude me driving.
The way I see it, if I get into an accident, I'd rather argue to the cop that I have had nothing to drink and not smell like alcohol than argue I've only had one or two beers with alcohol on my breath.
Just idiocy. The vast majority of drivers that cause accidents due to alcohol are way past the now current legal limits. They’ve been caught and arrested many times, and then they kill someone.
Most are driving without a license by this time, but we are supposed to think that lowering the limit to .02 will help.
The folks we’re talking about never make it down to .02. They wake up above that.
The Kennedys could replenish the family fortune.
I always found it interesting that Boston shuts down their busses and trains before last call at 2am.
I wonder why. /s
Drunk driving has confused me for some time.
Since the police decided to ticket you for driving too fast the automibile manufacturers installed speedometers so their customers have an idea of how fast they were going so they could avoid tickets.
Why arent all bars required do the same, have a breathalizer at the door so you can check yourself on the way out?
How does the drinker know if he is at 0.7 , or 0.9 without having a cop tell them as they click the handcuffs shut?
This is the reality in many places now, including where I live. Police look for any excuse to get people on the hook. If you blow any significant amount even though you are below the legal level they will try to find a way to get you.
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