State legislators may try again this year to enact legislation that would lower the threshold for a drunken driving arrest, a measure some say would address the concerning number of roadway fatalities in the state.

Under a proposal that was never taken to a full vote by the House or Senate last year, the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in Connecticut would drop from .08 grams per deciliter to .05.

Utah, which passed the more stringent standard in 2018, is the only other state to adopt the change so far.

The state Department of Transportation advocated for the move last year as part of a package of safety measures that included things like automated traffic enforcement and wrong-way driving deterrent systems.

There were 367 traffic-related fatalities in Connecticut in 2022, the most since 1989, the DOT said. While the numbers dropped to 322 in 2023, DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said there are still far too many fatal crashes and said evidence points to an uptick in things like speeding, distracted driving and impaired driving.

The number of drunken driving arrests was also at a six-year-high last year, according to statistics from the state Judicial Branch. In fiscal year 2022-23, there were 9,302 drunken driving arrests compared to 6,388 a year prior.

Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, co-chair of the transportation committee, said Wednesday that she thinks the legislation to lower the BAC is likely to again be considered. The Transportation Committee voted 21-15 last March to move forward the legislation forward.

“I think the discussion is not over,” Cohen said.

Proposal has support

The move to a .05 standard is supported by the National Transportation Safety Board, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, among other organizations. The NTSB said studies show that at .05, a driver has reduced coordination, a reduced ability to track moving objects and difficulty steering.

Bob Garguilo, executive director of MADD’s New England Region, said MADD is seeking a national .05 standard and supporting legislation as it is introduced in states around the country.

How many drinks it takes to get to .05 depends on factors like body weight, genetics, and how much food is consumed with the alcohol but can be as few as one or two drinks in an hour.

Cohen said Connecticut is not alone in considering the move to .05 and although just Utah has passed the .05 law, more than 100 countries around the world already use the standard.

“We know there’s a real safety impact of lowering the blood alcohol concentration standard and we also know the U.S. is an outlier of sorts, being at .08,” Cohen said.

Connecticut changed its drunken driving law in 2002, dropping the threshold from .1 to .08, which Cohen said led to a drop in the number of fatalities. Concern from the restaurant and entertainment industries that the new law would scare away consumers did not materialize, Cohen said.

“I think we have to remember this isn’t a call for folks to stop going out and enjoying themselves. We want them to think twice about getting behind the wheel after drinking,” she said. “Every single person driving through this state should feel that heightened sense of security.”

Cohen said the decreased BAC will have a deterrent effect, making people think twice before drinking at all before driving.

Citing a study 2014 study issued by the NTSB, Morgan said someone with a BAC between .05 and .079 is seven times more likely to be in a single-vehicle fatal crash compared to a sober driver.

The NTSB has included lowering the BAC on its Most Wanted List of transportation safety improvements and estimates that lowering the BAC in every state to 0.05% could save up to 1,790 lives per year,“ state DPT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said in written testimony.

Alcohol-related crashes higher than national average

From 2011 to 2020, alcohol-impaired crashes accounted for more than one third of all traffic fatalities in Connecticut (38-42%), Eucalitto said. Based on the most recent available verified data, in 2020, 118 persons were killed in alcohol-impaired crashes, which accounted for 40% of all fatalities in Connecticut compared to 30% nationally, he said.

“The national percentage of alcohol-impaired fatalities shows a declining trend over the past two decades, while Connecticut has inversely seen an increase in alcohol-impaired fatalities over the past two decades,” Eucalitto said.

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, a member of the transportation committee, was among the 21 legislators to vote for the stricter standard last year.

“It was just a change that made common sense,” Osten said.

Because it is a relatively new idea being brought forward, Osten said she thinks it might take some convincing. A look at the increase in fatal accidents in the state might be ample inspiration, she said.

Other transportation committee members that included state Reps. Devin Carney, R-Old Lyme, Christine Conley, D-Groton, and Norm Needleman, D-Essex, all voted against the bill last year.

Carney said Connecticut needs to look at the bigger picture when it comes to impaired driving.

“Currently, police are not allowed to pull a driver over for smoking pot, even if they see the driver doing so, without another cause,” Carney said. “In addition, Connecticut's policies have caused huge shortages in police and reduced morale. If we want to really improve traffic safety, we can't do so without supporting our police officers and reviewing all of our laws and policies related to impaired, dangerous, and/or distracted driving.”

Carney also cites data from the state of Utah that shows alcohol-related fatal crashes in the state increased after its law was passed in 2018. A report from the Utah Department Public Safety shows the alcohol-related fatal crashes rose from 30 in 2017 to 55 in 2021. Carney said there is also a question of whether someone arrested with a lower BAC should receive the same punishment as someone with a higher BAC.

“I think these are all conversations that need to be had and were not fleshed out last year,” Carney said.

Other solutions

State Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington, a detective with the Stonington Police Department, said he is not necessarily opposed to the idea but thinks there are other issues that could raised to address the state’s traffic fatality problem.

Howard, a ranking member of the public safety and security committee, said what some people in the public might not know is that police in Connecticut do not carry breathalyzers. Arrests are made based on a Standardized Field Sobriety Test that indicates the likelihood that someone’s blood alcohol level is above .10. A person is arrested if they fail that test and might later be administered a breathalyzer test.

The point, Howard said, is that a reduction in the drunken driving threshold will not necessarily lead to more arrests as some have speculated.

Howard said he does think the move will have a deterrent effect, what he called a “collateral benefit to public safety.” Howard said he thinks a better focus to address the number of traffic accidents is bolstering traffic enforcement on the state’s roadways.

“If you have more enforcement, you’ll have more compliance and if you have more compliance you’ll have fewer accidents. There is empirical evidence to back this up,” Howard said.

He said traffic stop data collected by the state shows a reduction in traffic stops corresponds with the jump in the number of traffic accidents.

“We’re not going to admit the real problem,” he said. “The ranks of the police departments in this state are down. We don’t have enough cops.”

In addition to fewer cops, Howard said the officers that are on patrol have an increasing amount of administrative work taking up their time. Speed, impaired driving and distracted driving are all factors that could be addressed with better enforcement, he said.

Morgan said that the DOT is likely to advocate for more traffic safety measures that will include an expansion of a work zone camera program that was piloted at a Interstate 95 work zone in East Lyme and ended last year.

“Really what we’re looking at is improving safety on the roadways, not just in cars but for those walking or riding bikes,” Morgan said. “You look at all of the advancements in safety technology, the advancements in our infrastructure since the ‘80s and the numbers should be going down and not up.”

g.smith@theday.com