State Stix                                                    

BAC again

"Moms, dads, teenagers, grandparents — someone close to you could be next."

With that rallying cry, the Coalition for Reform of DUI Laws has launched another effort to lower the threshold of alcohol content in the blood (BAC) from .1 to .08.

The legislature has considered but not passed the proposal, which is supported by Secretary of State George Ryan.

The coalition cites statistics indicating that a driver with .08 BAC is four times more likely to suffer an auto accident than a sober person and 11 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash. Eleven states have lowered their BAC threshold for considering a driver legally drunk to .08. Alcohol-related traffic fatalities dropped 14.5 percent in California when the BAC threshold dropped, the coalition noted.

In a snapshot of alcohol-related deaths on Illinois roads, the state Department of Transportation reports that 42 percent of traffic fatality in 1992 involved drivers who had positive BAC levels.