The NTSA has launched a series of holiday ads aimes at “buzz drivers.” That is, people who’ve had a couple of drinks, are not legally drunk, but who NTSA is warning will still go to jail for the non-crime of “drinking and driving.”

The message is pretty clear. It’s zero tolerance. And NTSA is generating quite a bit of local coverge for them. And of the dozen or so articles I’ve skimmed, most read a lot like this one:

Police warn driving while buzzed can be as dangerous as driving when legally drunk. A national campaign promotes the new slogan, “Buzz driving is drunk driving.” Many law enforcement agencies are taking the slogan seriously. DPS Trooper Johnny Hernandez tells NEWSCHANNEL 5, “Just because you don’t blow a 0.08, you can still be taken to jail.”

.08 is the blood alcohol level that deems a person legally drunk. But Texas law allows officers to take you in even if your level is below that. The law describes intoxication as “not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties by reason of alcohol or other substances.” Simply put, if you look like you can’t drive your vehicle or may hurt someone doing it, you could be heading to the slammer.

Shouldn’t we just drop the charade, and lower the BAC threshhold to .00?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2005 at 10:17 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.