Yes. It's me again.
Anybody read about the six innocent people who were killed in Sandusky last week.
The driver that was responsible was "legally" drunk. i.e. his blood alcohol content was 0.025% and he said he had drank two beers nine hours before the accident (a likely story- if he had drank two beers nine hours before he would have had no trace of alcohol in his blood).
Six lives gone forever, because a drunk chose to drive. What a waste.
Ohio Responsible Drinking Initiative (ORDI) wants to lower Ohio's BAC to 0.07% down from the 0.08% that it is now. Hopefully Ohio's General Assembly will listen. How many children have to be killed before they will do anything.
Oh, by the way, Ohio State Senator Jay Hottinger, who last year bragged about wanting to lower the state's BAC even further, has not responded to ORDI about supporting the 0.07 initiative or any of the other three. If anyone out there is in his district, ask him why. And if YOU can't get a response, VOTE HIM OUT, along with any other member of the House or Senate who won't support ORDI.
LET'S LOWER OHIO'S BAC NOW!!!!! AND KEEP LOWERING IT IN THE FUTURE!!!!
1 posted on 07/01/2004 11:10:10 AM PDT by nustart23
I want to apologize to Sen. Hottinger for making the remark in my last posting on July 1, 2004. It was a Sergeant Brian Webster (not Sen. Hottinger) of the Newark (Ohio) Police Department who made the statement about wishing to seek the BAC lowered even lower than 0.08%.
Here is that article:
FAMILIES, ACTIVISTS CELEBRATE LOWER DUI LIMIT
Wednesday, July 2, 2003
By Jon Craig
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
NEWS 04C
Two mothers, a sister and a wife -- all of whom lost loved ones to impaired drivers -- came together yesterday to praise a new state law lowering the blood-alcohol limit to 0.08 percent.
"Hopefully you'll never get a call like I did on Christmas Eve of 2001,'' said Darcee Claxon of South Webster in Scioto County. Claxon cried while describing her younger brother, Cody Michael Hammersley, "who forever will be 17'' and dreamed of playing college baseball and getting married.
Hammersley was fatally injured 500 feet from his home in Coshocton when his car was broadsided. The other driver, also 17, registered 0.082 on the Breathalyzer but was not charged with driving under the influence under the old limit. Still, he served 18 months in jail and in a rehabilitation center on another charge.
Until yesterday, the blood-alcohol threshold was 0.10 percent. The new limit means a 170-pound man drinking four to five beers an hour -- or a 137-pound woman drinking three beers an hour -- is too drunk to legally drive.
Meanwhile, Columbus attorney Bradley P. Koffel questioned the effective date that people can be charged under the lower limit. Koffel said his reading of House Bill 87 makes the new threshold effective in six months on Jan. 1, 2004.
"As a defense lawyer, if we have any clients charged with DUI for testing between 0.08 and 0.099, we will be requesting dismissal of that charge,'' he said. "Even if they're right, there is still going to be a lot of litigation and discussion in the courts.''
Speaking at a press conference at a Dublin hotel, Claxon implored teen-agers to take keys away from friends who insist on drinking and driving. She said her brother lost a two-week battle in the hospital before being declared brain-dead.
"I watched my brother's heart beat for a last time. Those images still haunt me today. I cannot explain the immense pain. Cody was a fighter (but) he doesn't have a voice anymore -- he was robbed of that -- to let people know drunk driving is not an accident.
"We pay daily, and we will pay for the rest of our lives,'' Claxon said. "I believe (0.08) will save the lives of other people.''
Others attending the press conference lost loved ones to drivers legally drunk under the old law.
Louanne Jones of Bexley lost her 19-year-old son, Brett Alan Sutton, in 1995 to a five-time offender now serving a 10-year prison sentence related to her son's death. "Slowly but surely we're changing the attitudes,'' she said.
Donna Maines' 18-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was killed on Thanksgiving 1996. The Newark mother's pain is compounded by the fact that the drunken driver was arrested -- again -- and imprisoned seven weeks ago.
And Sherrie Kass-Roth of Gahanna lost her 45-year-old husband, David, in a 1995 crash with a drunken driver that also severely injured their daughter, Bethanie.
It is estimated that about one-fifth of all alcohol-related crashes occur with drivers who test between 0.08 percent and 0.10 percent.
Sen. Jay Hottinger, a Newark Republican who sponsored the legislation, estimated the lower limit will save 30 lives the first year. The change also is expected to save at least $30 million annually in federal transportation funds as Ohio became the 42nd state to toughen its standard. The federal government threatened to cut off road-construction dollars starting in October for states that do not comply.
Hottinger was joined at the news conference by Maj. James H. Walker of the State Highway Patrol and Sgt. Brian Webster of the Newark Police Department.
"It's long overdue,'' Webster said. "Quite frankly, I would like to see it lowered even more.''
Using yellow crime-scene tape, officials from Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Ohio cordoned off 379 empty seats representing people killed in alcohol-related crashes last year in Ohio. More than 11,400 were injured.
"What a very sobering view that is,'' Hottinger said.