GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ - President Clinton answered the question: "How drunk is too drunk to drive?" in an early Monday morning ceremony on Oct. 23. Among approximately 500 drunk driving victims and student activists, the president signed a bill into law that established 0.08% as the national blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit required to charge drunk drivers with a crime. Nineteen states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia have previously adopted 0.08% as the legal drunk driving limit, while 31 states still allow drivers' BAC levels to reach 0.10%. States that do not conform to this federal law over the next four years will lose significant federal highway funds.
A Gallup survey released in September 2000 on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and sponsored by General Motors, found that 72% of Americans support lowering the drunk driving limit to 0.08% BAC as an initiative to reduce drunk driving. Even before Congress had passed the bill that would set a new national standard, two-thirds (65%) of Americans responded that they would favor a federal law lowering the legal BAC limit.
The Clinton administration has reported that studies indicate approximately 500 lives could be saved if all states were to adopt a 0.08% BAC law. Similar studies conducted in the late 70s and early 80s prompted President Reagan and Congress to pass the Uniform Drinking Age Act in 1984, which raised the minimum legal drinking age to 21 nationwide. This act mandated that states raise the drinking age to 21 or lose federal transportation funds.
Survey Methods
The survey was developed and conducted by Gallup for Mothers
Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and corporate sponsor General Motors
in commemoration of MADD's 20th anniversary. A total 1,002
telephone interviews were conducted between July 20-Aug. 3, 2000,
with a representative sample of the U.S. public age 16 and older.
The findings are based on 930 respondents who identified themselves
as licensed drivers. The margin of error equals plus or minus three
percentage points.
