Changing drunk driving from .08 to .05 overkill?

La Crosse sheriff thinks
plan misses mark

La Crosse’s sheriff isn’t a fan of the latest fed plan to eliminate impaired driving.

The National Transportation Safety Board has ruffled plenty of feathers recently by calling for dropping the blood-alcohol limit for driving from .08 to .05.

Sheriff Steve Helgeson says he doesn’t support it because there are drivers he is much more worried about than the barely impaired. He believes the proposal misses the mark.

“And those are the repeat offense drunk drivers that are out there,” Helgeson said, “as well as those persons behind the wheel with a very high blood-alcohol content.

“Those are the ones that I see are causing the serious accidents and fatalities. I don’t see a lot, from my personal experience, of persons causing serious accidents below .08.

Besides, says Helgeson, if someone is driving around at a .05 BAC, they can still be arrested for impaired driving if it can be determined that booze is having an effect.