WASHINGTON - Ten more states have succumbed to pressure from the federal government to adopt DWI laws with a blood-alcohol limit of 0.08 percent.
The states acted this spring and summer after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration announced last February they planned to start withholding federal highway money from states that haven't adopted the 0.08 percent standard. (See March 1 Bus & Motorcoach News.)
The strong-arm tactic was enough to convince all but six states to toe the line.
The holdouts are Colorado, Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. These states have failed, so far, to enact what the federal bureaucrats call "conforming 0.08 blood-alcohol laws."
One state, which adopted the 0.08 standard this spring, has put its new provision on hold. North Dakota's lowered blood-alcohol law was to go into effect Aug. 1, but submission of referendum petitions has cast doubt on the future of the requirement.
Forty-four states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, now have 0.08 percent blood-alcohol laws and all of them have gone into effect except those in Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin and, of course, North Dakota. The Louisiana, Michigan and Wisconsin laws go into effect Sept. 30, and the New York requirement kicks in Nov. 1.
The lowered blood-alcohol standards have significant implications for holders of CDLs if they are caught driving while intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration put tough new rules into effect a year ago that can disqualify a bus or truck driver from operating a commercial vehicle if he or she has been convicted of committing alcohol- or drug-related offenses while driving a personal vehicle.
Late last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration published the final rules that allow them to start withholding federal highway money from the six states that don't have the 0.08 blood-alcohol standard.
The rules published in the Federal Register allow the withholding of 2 percent of the federal highway dollars that would normally go to the states, starting in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The percentage increases to 4 percent next year, 6 percent in 2006, and 8 percent in succeeding years.
A copy of the rules can be found in the Federal Register at most public libraries. See Vol. 68, No. 163, pages 50703-50710. Or, by tracking down the Federal Register on the Internet. The rule can be viewed after searching at http://dms.dot.gov/.