Washington lawmakers this session are mulling a renewed push to drop the legal blood alcohol level for drivers from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent.
Senate Bill 5067 was heard in the Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday afternoon. Its prime sponsor, state Sen. John Lovick, served for nearly four decades as a state trooper and Snohomish County Sheriff.
Lovick said the roads in Washington aren’t as safe as they once were, nor as safe as they should be.
“I see driving behavior that is beyond anything I could have imagined as a state trooper,” the Mill Creek Democrat said. “Drivers are weaving recklessly in and out of traffic, passing on the shoulders and speeding just inches away from other cars, inches away from a deadly collision.”
SB 5067 would lower the legal blood or breath alcohol concentration limits for driving a car or watercraft to 0.05 percent BAC, taking effect July 1, 2026. It would establish a campaign to let the public know about the update and require an evaluation of the results of the law change.
If the bill is signed into law, Washington would not be the first state to adopt such a measure. At the end of 2018, Utah became the only state in the nation with a 0.05 percent BAC limit. Most countries in Western Europe already abide by 0.05 percent BAC limits or lower.
Of Washington state’s 810 traffic deaths in 2023, roughly half were related to drug- or alcohol-impaired driving, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
Supporters of the bill say it would work to save lives and boost community safety. Detractors argue that it could ensnare sub-0.08 percent BAC drivers who are not impaired.
The Senate committee on Thursday heard from people whose family members were killed by drunk drivers. Michael Coury said his 12-year-old son, Gabriel, was fatally struck by an impaired driver as he was walking home after spending the day with friends at a park.
“The pain of losing a child in this way is indescribable, and is a wound that will never fully heal,” Coury told the committee, speaking virtually. “Every day I’m reminded of the senselessness of his death and the fact that it could have been prevented. Lowering the BAC limit to 0.05 is a crucial step in preventing similar tragedies from happening to other families. No family should have to suffer this kind of loss.”
How drunk is 0.05 percent?
James C. Fell, principal research scientist with NORC at the University of Chicago, a national opinion research center, delivered a presentation about impaired driving. He said that over a two-hour period, and on an empty stomach, it would take a 170-pound male at least four drinks to meet or exceed 0.05 percent BAC. It would take a 137-pound female three drinks under the same conditions.
At 0.05 percent BAC, a person could feel uninhibited and experience impaired judgment, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Compare that with 0.08 percent BAC, when someone could have less muscle coordination, altered reasoning and judgment and find it harder to detect danger.
Captain Deion Glover with the Washington State Patrol told McClatchy that at 0.05 percent BAC, drivers start to lose the ability to react quickly. They’re twice as likely to be involved in a collision, he said.
Glover encourages people to have a plan in place — before they go out and drink — on how to get home safe. He said that having to walk up to someone’s door to tell them their loved one isn’t coming home is “probably the worst thing I have had to do.”
“I don’t want to have a family have to hear that story, or one of my colleagues have to go to somebody’s house at 2 o’clock in the morning … or 1 o’clock in the afternoon the next day to tell somebody that, ‘Hey, your loved one’s not coming home because someone made a poor decision to drive impaired,’” Glover said.
The opponents
Representatives from the hospitality and alcoholic-beverage industries spoke in opposition to SB 5067.
Julia Gordon with the Washington Hospitality Association noted that impaired drivers can already be stopped, charged and convicted even if they are at or below 0.05 percent BAC. Yet customers who stop drinking before they become impaired could now be subjected to some of the harshest DUI penalties in the nation, she said.
Daniel Olson, executive director of the Washington Brewers Guild, said breweries are committed to public safety and also want to see a reduction in impaired driving.
“To emphasize, we strongly support policies that effectively address impaired driving,” Olson told the committee. “However, we believe this bill places unnecessary restrictions on responsible consumers and small businesses, and we urge the committee not to move forward with this bill.”
