To reduce alcohol-related crashes, a new National Academies of Sciences study also recommends raising alcohol taxes and requiring interlocks for all DWI offenders.
State governments can adopt several strategies to reduce alcohol-related crashes, according to a new report, including lowering the DWI blood alcohol concentration (BAC) threshold from .08 to .05 percent and raising alcohol taxes.
A committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted the study at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Other report recommendations include strengthening policies to prevent alcohol sales to people under 21 and to adults who are already intoxicated, requiring ignition interlocks for all DWI offenders, and making effective treatment available to all offenders.
Ad Loading...
More than 10,000 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities occur in the U.S. each year, despite progress in recent decades. All 50 states currently have a BAC threshold of .08 percent in place. In 2017, however, Utah passed a law lowering the limit to .05 percent. That state law takes effect Dec. 30.
The committee’s report asserts that a driver’s ability to operate a motor vehicle safely begins to deteriorate at low levels of BAC. The report cites studies showing that adopting a .05 percent BAC limit can markedly reduce road deaths tied to alcohol-impaired driving. Countries that have such a lower threshold include Austria, Denmark, and Japan.
The report also recommends that the federal government create incentives for states to lower the BAC limit. Moreover, strong media and enforcement campaigns should accompany such policy changes, according to the report.
“The plateauing fatality rates indicate that what has been done to decrease deaths from alcohol-impaired driving has been working but is no longer sufficient to reverse this growing public health problem,” said committee chair Steven Teutsch, an adjunct professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a senior fellow at the Public Health Institute. “Our report offers a comprehensive blueprint to reinvigorate commitment and calls for systematic implementation of policies, programs, and systems changes to renew progress and save lives.”
Additional report recommendations include:
Ad Loading...
State and local limitations on alcohol availability, including restrictions on the number of on- and off-premise outlets and the days and hours of alcohol sales
Stronger federal, state and local standards for alcohol marketing content
Sobriety checkpoints to identify and arrest alcohol-impaired drivers
State DWI courts that specialize in changing offender behavior through monitoring and substance abuse treatment
Municipality support for alternative transportation
Further development of Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) technology.
Last month, National Transportation Safety Board member T. Bella Dinh-Zarr urged employers with motor vehicle fleets to publicly support legislative efforts to lower BAC thresholds to .05 percent.
“Many peer-reviewed studies have shown that such a law would prevent impaired-driving crashes,” Dinh-Zarr wrote in a blog. “While commercial drivers already are required to comply with a .04 BAC limit, employers can be an important influence in the lives of their employees, as well as in the communities in which they operate, by educating their employees and spreading the word about the effectiveness of a .05 BAC law.”
On average, since 1982, one-third of all traffic deaths are attributed to alcohol-impaired driving, and nearly 40 percent of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities are victims other than the drinking driver, according to the National Academies of Sciences report.
Click here to download the report. To view a video about the recommendations, click on the photo or link below the headline.
Distracted driving remains one of the most persistent risks in fleet operations. New approaches focus on removing mobile device use entirely while adding real-time safety support.
As distraction risks evolve, fleets are turning to smarter, more connected technologies to better understand what’s happening behind the wheel. Part 2 explores how these tools are helping identify risky behaviors and improve visibility across operations.
Distracted driving is often measured by what we can see—phones in hand, eyes off the road. But what about the distractions we can’t? A recent incident raises a bigger question about awareness, attention, and why subtle risks so often go unnoticed.
Fleets have more driver data than ever, so why isn't behavior changing? Training requires more than reports and coaching — it requires real-world practice.
A two-part conversation with Stefan Heck on how AI is transforming the fight against distracted driving. As fleets adopt smarter tools, the focus shifts from reacting to preventing risk. In Part 1, we look at where AI is making an impact for fleets today.
An 11% drop in pedestrian fatalities in early 2025 signals progress in U.S. road safety, but elevated death rates and ongoing risks underscore the need for continued action from fleets and policymakers.
