It's disappointing to hear that the state legislature doesn't seem serious about really cracking down on drunken drivers. The General Assembly lowered the threshold at which drivers can be considered drunk, but authorities say it actually might have been a wobbly step backward. That's because it gives defense attorneys new loopholes, something they did not need. Lobbyists who helped fashion the law no doubt knew it.

Comparisons are not yet available to measure whether the new law leads to more drunken-driving convictions.

But there are plenty of statistics available to document the horrors drunken drivers cause. For that reason, the federal government forced every state to lower the blood alcohol level for drivers from .10 to .08, meaning they can be considered under the influence with less to drink than before.

One of the early complaints on the law is that it requires law enforcement officers to read suspects their rights twice -- once before they are tested for possible drunken driving. That is a level of protection not required for suspects in any other crime. Fixing it is something that the legislature showed little interest in this year, leading state Rep. JoAnne Gilham of Hilton Head Island to say she doesn't see true resolve in the legislature to rid the roads of deadly drunken drivers.

However, it seems like a problem easily resolved. Just do it. It could become second nature for officers.

All problems discovered in the fine print of South Carolina's new law, which was adopted a year ago under the threat of losing federal highway dollars, should be dealt with by a legislature intent on doing all it can to ensure public safety.

Prosecutors and law enforcement officers in all states must be experiencing similar issues. South Carolina, with its dreadful highway safety statistics, should scan the nation to find out what works and do it.

Meanwhile, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office has taken a positive step that could have a greater impact on drunken-driving convictions than any new law.

With a combination of state and local money, every patrol car will soon have a video camera on board to record traffic stops. That will provide jurors with important information on why a driver was stopped and how the driver acted immediately thereafter.

Another thing that could take place without changing state law is for judges to demand that drunken-driving cases be heard in a timely manner. Long delays are the defendant's best friend and defense attorneys know it. The Municipal Court on Hilton Head Island has done a lot recently to bring driving-under-the-influence cases to trial sooner, and that needs to be the accepted norm. If judges are in charge of the courtroom, they need to make it clear that delays will not be tolerated.