A step in the right direction

If you plan on drinking and driving, there's a new number you should become familiar with: 0.08. \nPresident Bill Clinton signed a bill Monday that requires states to implement the new blood alcohol content standard as the legal level by 2004. States that don't comply will loose millions of dollars in federal highway funds.\n "This is a very good day for the United States," the president said. "(It is) the biggest step to toughen drunk driving laws and reduce alcohol-related crashes since the national minimum drinking age was established a generation ago."\nEighteen states have already set their blood-alcohol level at .08. Indiana isn't one of them, but the change will come soon enough.\nAlcohol-related crashes still kill more people than any other cause. In 1999, 15,786 people were killed in drunk driving accidents, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Clinton estimates this new law will save 500 lives a year.\nThink your night of drinking will be ruined? Unless you're an alcoholic, you can still enjoy yourself.\nA 170-pound man could consume four drinks in an hour on an empty stomach before reaching the 0.08 limit, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. A 137-pound woman could have three drinks in an hour before reaching the limit.\nI'm no expert, but if you're consuming more than this, you might just have a drinking problem.\nNot everyone is happy about the new limit.\nThe American Beverage Institute, an association of restaurant operators, called the new law "an attack on social drinkers."\n"This law will arrest people who are not part of the drunk driving problem," said spokesman John Doyle to the Chicago Tribune. "This law is leaving many Americans to believe that the drunk driving problem has been addressed (but) nothing could be further from the truth."\nClinton said he disagrees and sees this as a way of forcing people to use discretion.\n"Lowering the limit will make (people) take even greater care when they drink alcohol in any amounts, if they intend to drive," he said.\nMaybe that's why Doyle is so upset. His association might lose money. He obviously hasn't lost anyone he loves to a drunk driving accident.\nClinton was joined in a Rose Garden ceremony by Millie Webb, the national president of MADD. Webb lost her 4-year-old daughter and 19-month-old nephew in an accident caused by a drunk driver. She also suffered a broken neck and burns over 75 percent of her body. \nMaybe when it happens to these idiots who drink and drive they'll change their ways.\nClinton gave MADD credit for having the law passed. The group was persistent despite his three-year battle with Congress.\nEven with the new limit, a driver with a 0.08 blood alcohol content is 11 times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision than a sober driver, according to MADD. Bottom line, don't drink and drive.\n"There are still too many drunk drivers and there still will be too many after this law," Clinton said. "(But) people who have that much alcohol in their blood are too impaired to drive safely."\nRegardless of whether you agree with the new law, if you drink and plan to drive you are going to have to make some changes.\nBut don't be stupid. Calling a cab or handing over your keys is far smarter than killing someone because you thought you could drive.