States pay a price for alcohol in vehicles

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Last year, the Missouri Department of Transportation installed 63 miles of guard cables in the grassy median of Interstate 70 to cut down on crossover collisions. But the $11.1 million project wasn't carried out by choice.

Until Missouri outlaws open containers of alcohol in motor vehicles, the state remains under federal order to spend 3 percent of its federal road construction funds each year on traffic safety projects. Thirteen other states are in the same position because they, too, allow passengers to have open containers of alcohol.

Why would a state accept a Washington dictate rather than simply pass an open-container ban? In Missouri, the answer is the same this year and every year.

"Because Anheuser-Busch is opposing it," said Rep. Cynthia Davis, sponsor of this year's bill. "Anheuser-Busch is a very big contributor to many candidates."

As surely as Missouri's Transportation Department lobbies for an open-container bill each year so that the state can spend all of its federal highway funds on construction, so St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch fights the effort.

John Britton, the brewing company's lobbyist, defends Missouri's current law. The fact that a passenger is enjoying a beer doesn't mean the driver will drink as well, Britton says.

"I don't know what harm a passenger in the back seat can do," said Britton, who has trolled the halls of the Missouri Capitol for Anheuser-Busch for more than 40 years.

It's not uncommon to see empty 24-can cases of Bud Light outside the offices of Missouri legislators, some of whom regularly stock their office refrigerators with Anheuser-Busch products.

The federal mandate to ban open containers has been in effect for four years. For the first two years, states without the bans were ordered to divert 1.5 percent of their federal highway construction funds to safety projects; the level rose to 3 percent two years ago.

Other states that have refused to change their laws include Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. A Virginia House committee defeated an open container bill on Friday.

For Missouri, the diversions amounted to slightly more than $5 million in the first two years, and about $12 million in the last two years.

"Normally, this money might have gone to rehabbing a bridge or rehabbing a road or making a new road," said Jeff Briggs, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Instead, the state undertook safety projects such as intersection improvements and the guard cable installation along portions of Interstate 70, which the department had not planned until at least 2009.

Other states have carried out similar safety projects with money that would otherwise have gone into construction. Diversions last year included $11.9 million in Tennessee, about $13.5 million in Indiana, about $7.3 million in Arkansas and $5.2 million in Alaska.

"It's construction work, but it's projects that maybe wouldn't get funded under the normal highway bill get kicked into gear because of this money," said Don Smith, administrator of the Alaska Highway Safety Office.

In a recent speech to the Missouri Legislature, state transportation director Henry Hungerbeeler called an open-container law as an improvement that would "save lives and money and won't cost us a cent."

Davis, R-O'Fallon, proposes in her bill to ban open alcohol containers in cars while still allowing passengers to possess them in limousines, buses and recreational vehicles.

Davis said House leaders have told her the bill would be considered in March or April at the earliest. The session adjourns in May.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Jon Dolan, R-St. Louis, said he doubts Missouri will ban open containers until the federal government threatens to withhold highway money.

As it is, "we just have to spend it on safety, which is a worthwhile expense, and the people in their carpools to Mizzou games don't seem to support" a ban, Dolan said, referring to sports fans traveling to the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Davis theorized that alcohol sales would actually rise if Missourians had to pour out their beers before getting into a car and buy more upon reaching their destinations. She doesn't drink alcohol, but "even if I did, I don't feel a compulsion to drink while I'm in a vehicle."

Rod Forth, Anheuser-Busch's vice president for government affairs, said better enforcement of Missouri's existing laws was preferable to banning open containers of alcohol in cars.

"There already are laws on the books which make it illegal for a driver to operate a vehicle while under the influence," Forth said in a statement to The Associated Press. "We believe there is no need to pass new laws to make it illegal for an adult passenger to be able to enjoy a beer while traveling with friends for an evening out or to see a ballgame."

------

Alcohol bill is HB1121.

On the Net:

Anheuser-Busch: http://www.anheuser-busch.com

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Missouri Legislature: http://www.moga.state.mo.us