RINKING, DRIVING: MESSAGE IS DON'T DO IT

Pressure is mounting, in Missouri and around the nation, to lower the legal limits on blood-alcohol content for motorists. Missouri is one of 35 states that have set the limit at 0.1 percent. Some other states, including Illinois, have lowered the limit to 0.08 percent. And Congress also is considering legislation that would require states to have the 0.08 limit in order to receive all of their federal highway funds.

Proponents of the lower limit suggest that fewer dangerous drivers would get behind the wheel of a vehicle if they knew the legal consequences of being caught while driving or being involved in a possibly deadly accident. Those same backers point to statistics that show drunk-driving fatalities have declined in states with the lower limits.

The concern over what the limit should be for blood-alcohol content emphasizes the national concern about drunken driving. There are far too many lives that have been lost because someone chose to drive while drunk.

While fatalities involving intoxicated drivers have, indeed, gone down in some states with lower limits on blood-alcohol content, the figures aren't exactly clear. Some states that have adopted the 0.08 limit have actually seen increases in fatalities where drinking was a factor, and others have seen both increases and decreases, depending on which time period was being measures.

And, it seems, the statistical measure of fatalities involving alcohol often don't factor in such things as the increased use of auto safety devices like air bags.

Statistics aside, common sense says that people who drink shouldn't be driving, regardless of the legal limits for blood-alcohol content. Study after study has shown that how drunk a person is after a drink or a few beers depends on a good many factors. Some people would be unsafe to drive long before they reach the 0.08 percent level, while others would be able to operate a vehicle safely well beyond that point.

So the issue isn't what level of blood-alcohol content is safe. The issue is how to convince people that they should not drive after they consume alcoholic beverages. Lowering the limit on blood-alcohol content is just one way to send that message. The lower the legal limit on alcohol consumption, the less likely prudent motorists will be to get behind the wheel.

One way to deal with how much alcohol should be in the blood of the nation's motoring public would be to make it illegal to operate a vehicle after drinking any amount of alcohol. The country isn't quite ready to go to that extreme -- yet. For now, the message of the 0.08 limit is coming from voices of legitimate concern.