The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report on Tuesday recommending that states adopt a new Blood-Alcohol Concentration limit of .05 instead of .08.  The recommendation indicated that the NTSB estimates reducing the legal BAC from .08 to .05 would save five to eight hundred lives per year by reducing alcohol-related traffic crashes.

Beverage industry trade groups oppose the measure. CNN reports that the American Beverage Association attacked the report, saying that .05 BAC is the level of blood alcohol you will find in the average woman after only one drink.

Under Delaware law, there is a presumption that if your BAC is .08 within four hours after driving, you were intoxicated. Delaware’s DUI law is tough enough without having the BAC lowered to .05.

Joe McClain of the Beer Institute recommends that instead of focusing on lowering the permissible BAC, we focus law enforcement efforts on those who are clearly a risk to public safety – repeat offenders and those with BAC’s in excess of .15. That sounds like a more commonsense approach.

To read the CNN report click here.