Even as they disagree on the volatile issue of lowering Rhode Island's acceptable blood-alcohol concentration levels
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Jan. 28) -- Even as they disagree on the volatile issue of lowering Rhode Island's acceptable blood-alcohol concentration levels, the state's attorney general and leading hospitality industry representatives have joined forces to combat the pressing problem of repeat drunk-driving offenders.
Standing near the emergency room of the Rhode Island Hospital here, Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse, officials of the Rhode Island Hospitality & Tourism Association and emergency rescue workers from local police and fire departments unveiled a legislative package that would increase penalties for repeat drunk drivers and make it easier for hospitality workers and police to identify offenders before they harm others.
"This is where we have always felt that the problem existed, but for years the only debate we had was the 0.08 [percent blood-alcohol] debate," said Bob Antignano, chairman of the hospitality association, or RIHTA, and owner of Angelo's Civita Farnese Restaurant in Providence.
Like many other foodservice industry groups, RIHTA has maintained that lowering the standard blood alcohol level at which an individual is considered legally drunk does not deter alcohol abusers from drinking and driving. RIHTA and other groups also contend that statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, support their position.
According to the NHTSA, 62 percent of the alcohol-related fatalities in 1997 occurred at a blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, of 0.14 percent or higher, well above the nationally predominant legal standard BAC of 0.10 percent. Newly released NHTSA statistics show that 30 percent of all traffic fatalities in 1998 involved a person with a BAC of 0.10 percent or greater. Further, NHTSA data found that fatally injured drivers with BAC levels of 0.10 percent or higher were six times more likely to have prior convictions for driving while intoxicated than fatally injured sober drivers.
"We have tried to show that the problem was with people at the 0.15, 0.16 and 0.17 BAC levels," Antignano commented. "We felt we should address that problem, plus the second and third-time offenders. So when the attorney general said he wanted to push this, we knew our restaurants and hotels do not serve people like this."
Added Dale J. Venturini, RIHTA's president, "Today they addressed the right problem."
As proposed, the legislation would allow police and prosecutors to charge repeat drunk-driving offenders with felonies rather than misdemeanors. Consequently, penalties would increase considerably. For instance, the prison term for a person convicted of drunk driving three or more times within a five-year period and found to have a BAC of 0.15 percent or higher would be extended from its current range of six months to a year to a minimum of three years and a maximum of five years.
"If someone's been convicted of drunk driving before and they haven't learned their lesson, the price needs to go up," said Attorney General Whitehouse.
The legislation also would require that repeat offenders be issued licenses flagged with the phrase "DUI license." Such a designation would tip bartenders off to problem drinkers in instances where the person is carded and would help police when they pull over such drivers.
"We're providing the people who serve alcohol with another tool," Whitehouse stated. "It's not a desire to turn bartenders into police officers ... and it is an important piece of information for the police."
Efforts to lower Rhode Island's 0.10-percent BAC standard to 0.08 percent have failed repeatedly over the past decade, and RIHTA's opposition to such a change has drawn criticism that the group lacks compassion about the consequences of drunk driving.
The association's support for the new repeat-drunk-driver legislation "was a chance to get a proactive message out there that we are opposed to drunk driving, rather than that we are the people who keep killing 0.08 legislation," said Brian Goldman, RIHTA's general counsel.
Although no legislation to lower the BAC standard currently is pending in Rhode Island, Whitehouse said he would support future attempts to reduce the state's BAC level. However, he noted that for now the state and RIHTA had found common ground in the desire to punish repeat drunk drivers more harshly.
"I wanted to make progress on this," Whitehouse explained. "We've been hung up on 0.08 for too long, and this was an opportunity to make progress."
Thirty-five states still have a 0.10-percent BAC standard although seven states currently actively are considering proposals to lower their BAC standards, said John Doyle, spokesman for the American Beverage Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that monitors alcohol-related legislation for several casual dinner-house companies. Doyle said his group also anticipates that Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., this year would attempt again to pass federal legislation that would supersede varying state laws and lower the nationally accepted BAC standard to 0.08 percent.
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