In Arizona, they’re not even pretending anymore:

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is calling for a new law that would make any drinking and driving illegal - even if the driver is not impaired.

[...]

“They say Big Brother doesn’t need to regulate this, but we, the taxpayers, pay the bills” when drunken drivers cause accidents, he said.

[...]

He already has won the support of two political leaders and officials with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

[...]

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is interested in Dupnik’s idea, too, director Richard Fimbres said.
“It’s time to shake up how we do things in Arizona,” he said.

In recent years, Arizona has enacted steeper consequences for drunken drivers, he said. The minimum blood-alcohol level for impairment was reduced in 2001 to 0.08 percent. Fines and fees have increased, and the number of citations issued has risen, too.

Dupnik hopes to have legislation drafted for the next session.

It doesn’t have much chance of passing. Yet.

But note that MADD is on board.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 25th, 2005 at 12:56 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Alcohol, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.