Just how drunk are you?

Sarah Longwell is the managing director of the American Beverage Institute. She wrote a letter to the editor of The Dallas Morning News. There have been several fatality accidents on Dallas freeways recently caused by drunken drivers going the wrong way. The News had run an article describing possible solutions to the problem. Sarah took exception to requiring ignition interlocks, devices that require a breath analysis before a car can be started, for first time offenders.

She says people "driving one sip over the legal limit shouldn't be punished with the same severity as the high-blood alcohol concentration repeat offenders." So, I guess if you're drunk, and you head the wrong way on the freeway and kill someone, you're not guilty if it was just that last drink that put you over the limit. Unfortunately, the victim isn't any less dead. The victim doesn't care if the drunk was a "marginal, first-time offender" instead of a "hard-core drunken driver." Driving drunk is driving drunk -- one sip over the limit or a 12-pack over the limit.

"Don't throw the book at sippers." The Dallas Morning News; August 7, 2009; p. 22A.