SETTING NEW LIMITS: ILLINOIS' NEW DUI LAW TOUTED AS A LIFESAVER

New drunk driving legislation in Illinois should make social drinkers in restaurants and bars think twice before ordering another drink.

Illinois lowered its legal blood-alcohol limits for drivers to 0.08 on July 2 when Gov. Jim Edgar signed Senate Bill 8.

Illinois is the first major Midwestern state and 15th in the nation to set a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.08 as the threshhold for drunk driving.

Nationally, Congress has proposed new federal drunk-driving legislation which would lower the BAC to 0.98.

Illinois Secretary of State George H. Ryan is convinced that the enactment of a landmark anti-drunk driving law will make roads and highways safer in his state.

"Many studies show that 0.08 laws act as deterrents on the behavior of motorists who drink and drive," said Ryan. Traffic safety experts and a number of studies agree show that states with .08 laws in place have recorded 16 percent fewer traffic crashes.

Ryan feels that the new law was a factor in the Fourth of July traffic fatality count in Illinois.

Ten people were killed on Illinois highways over the long Fourth holiday, said Ryan. A year ago, 29 persons died in traffic accidents during the same holiday period.

Ryan estimates that the new BAC law will save an estimated 65 lives next year on alcohol-related traffic deaths in Illinois.

Illinois became a safer state on July 2, said Ryan. "The roads in Illinois are going to be a lot safer now. This is the end of a very long fight, a hard fight."

That fight began more than six years ago when Ryan first pushed for the bill in the General Assembly. Many lawmakers opposed lowering the blood alcohol limit, worrying it would unfairly punish social drinkers.

But some were swayed this year after Ryan invited them to consume several drinks and then drive on a supervised test course. Legislators there said they were surprised how much it took to reach the 0.08 limit.

"You have to drink pretty heavy and hammer them down pretty hard to get to .08," Ryan said.

To reach a .08 BAC, a 170-pound man would have to drink four drinks in an hour and a 137-pound woman would have to finish three drinks in a hour.

A "drink" is defined as a 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or one ounce of liquor.

The penalty for violating the law is the same -- a suspended license for three months on the first offense.

The first driving-under-the-influence (DUI) arrest under the new legislation occurred less than 10 hours after the bill was signed by Edgar.

A motorist was pulled over by a State Police investigator who observed a car in Macon County driving off and on the pavement.

The driver was administered a blood-alcohol test with a preliminary breath tester and registered a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of .087. The driver was also cited for refusing to complete a standard breathalyzer test at the Decatur Police Department.

If convicted of the DUI charge, he faces the loss of his driving privileges for one year, up to a year in jail, and a $1,000 fine.

A total of 131 DUI violations were issued during the Fourth of July weekend. Ten percent of those citations were based on the new BAC law.

A study by the Boston University School of Public Health indicates that in the next year, Illinois' .08 law could save 65 people from dying in alcohol-related traffic crashes. Studies of .08 laws in other states also indicate that the .08 laws in other states has resulted in an average of 10 to 16 percent reductions in alcohol-related fatal crashes.

Another study by Boston University indicates that more than 500 lives a year could be saved if every state lowered its legal blood-alcohol limit for driver to .08.

Federal drunk driving legislation has been proposed to lower the BAC to 0.08, but such laws have been proposed before.

The latest federal proposal, however, is attached to a federal highway safety bill which would withhold a portion of federal highway funds from states that do not reduce the legal blood alcohol concentrations.

The latest bill, which will be debated in future months, like others before it also has the support of Mothers Against Drunken Drivers (MADD).

Illinois had already been graded "A" by MADD for its efforts in reducing drunken drivers on the road.

In fact, the Illinois rating was the best issued by MADD when it presented its ratings a few years ago. High on the grading chart were Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio.

Missouri graded out at D-plus. The lowest grade was D-minus for Mississippi.

The 14 other states currently with 0.08 BAC laws are: Alabama, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, North Caroline, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Vermont. Thirty-three states have 0.10 BAC laws. Two states -- Massachusetts and South Carolina -- have no limit, but Massachusetts has an admiistrative per-se law that sets an 0.08 BAC.

A total of 37 states have enacted "zero tolerance" laws providing for the immediate suspension of licenses of any driver under 21 found with an measurable amount of alcohol in his/her system.

Edgar described the new law as "a new tool in our arsenal in our war against drunk drivers." Before signing the bill Edgar said it was something that has long been needed.

Sobering statistics

Nationwide, DWI violations and arrests are up. Although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommended in 1992 that the blood-alcohol county (BAC) be lowered to 0.08, only 15 states have complied.

Following are some statistics compiled by the NHTSA and the National Safety Council (NSC):

-- Traffic crashes area the leading cause of deaths for 5-to-54-year-olds.

-- Forty percent of traffic fatalities involve alcohol.

-- 93 percent of drunken driving deaths involve drivers with a blood-alcohol level of at least 0.10.

-- 43 percent of the fatal crashes, the driver had a blood-alcohol level of 0.80.

-- Someone is killed by a drunk driver every 30 minutes.

-- Someone is injured by a drunk driver every two minutes.

-- On weekends, between 1 and 6 a.m., one in seven drivers is drunk.

-- All drivers have a 2-in-5 chance of being involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives.

-- In 1995, the most recent year figures are available, the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities was 17,274.

-- DWI violations and arrests are up nationwide.

-- More than half of those jailed for DWI during a recent year, had previous DWI convictions, and one in six had already served as least three other DWI sentences.

-- A goal has been set to reduce annual alcohol-related traffic death tolls to 11,000 by the year 2005.