Idaho Considering Lowering Drunk Driving BAC

When was the last time you thought you may get pulled over after having just one glass of wine with your dinner?  If Idaho decides to follow the NTSB's recommendation to lower the legal blood alcohol content level, you could find yourself facing drunk driving charges for doing exactly that.

According to Channel 2, the National Transportation Safety Board wants to lower the legal BAC level from .08 to .05.  The number of drinks it takes a person to get to that number varies based on their size, how full their stomach is and the time at which they last ate.

The Idaho State Police aren't exactly backing that recommendation.  A 14 year veteran of ISP told the news outlet that a driver's level of impairment is more important than their BAC level.  He said in the past he's seen people who are clearly impaired but can't arrest them for DUI because their BAC is under the current .08 limit. The officer explains that lowering the legal BAC would put people who are clearly NOT impaired at a .05 in a bad position.

So how long would it take someone to get to a .05 BAC level?  I used this calculator as a guide and it told me that the three beers I had during Superbowl 50 would have put me at about a .046 BAC level.  For full disclosure, I'm 5' 4", 120 lbs.

A spokesperson for Mothers Against Drunk Driving suggested that an education campaign aimed at helping people realizing when they are impaired would be more beneficial in helping reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road than lowering the BAC to .05.