| State lowers legal alcohol limit for DUI AIKEN - Starting today, it becomes a little easier to get a DUI in South Carolina. With the threat of losing federal transportation money hanging over the state, South Carolina lawmakers this year agreed to lower the legal threshold for DUI from 0.10 grams blood-alcohol content to 0.08 grams, joining 43 other states that have tightened their drunken-driving laws. At the same time, penalties for driving under the influence will stiffen with the new law. A first-time offender who would have paid $759 in fines and court costs will now pay $992. "It's a tougher law, no question," Aiken City Solicitor Richard Pearce said. "There's a narrower gray area. I think we're going to have to wait and see what effect it will have." South Carolina authorities already have had the power to charge drivers with DUI at 0.08 grams blood-alcohol content if they had corroborating evidence of drunken driving from field sobriety tests such as slurred speech and obvious physical impairment. Now at that level, a driver is presumed drunk under the law. "It's not like we've never arrested someone under 0.10 (grams)," said Lt. Greg Stanford, a DUI training instructor for the Aiken Department of Public Safety. "A lot of people were being arrested in that range if there was other evidence to substantiate the arrest." According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an average 170-pound man would have to drink four drinks in an hour on an empty stomach to reach a 0.08 blood-alcohol concentration. A 137-pound woman would have to drink three drinks in an hour on an empty stomach to be legally impaired. Impairment varies from person to person, though, depending on metabolism, Lt. Stanford said, and there is no hard-and-fast formula for when a person becomes too tipsy to drive. "There's really just too many factors to take a chance," Lt. Stanford said. Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been a driving force in getting states to lower their DUI threshold to 0.08. The organization successfully lobbied the federal government to withhold transportation funds if states didn't lower the limit. South Carolina stood to lose $63 million if it didn't change the law. Georgia enacted its 0.08 threshold in 2001; North Carolina has used that limit since 1993. MADD estimates 0.O8 laws lead to an 8 percent reduction in all alcohol-related fatal crashes in the states where they are enacted. Aiken Public Safety Lt. Teddy Umsted says the new law won't necessarily spell more DUI arrests. "What it will mean, hopefully, is people will think a little earlier before they get to that limit," Lt. Umsted said. "They'll stop themselves." Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1395.
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