In a shocking announcement earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board released a proposal arguing that all states, including my home state of Minnesota, should decrease the legal limit for alcohol consumption. The proposal by the federal agency would lead to potentially major changes in what qualifies as legally acceptable social drinking.

The NTSB specifically issued a recommendation that all 50 states drop their hurdle for what qualifies as impaired driving from the current 0.08 percent BAC. This figure is currently the legal limit in all 50 states and also many other countries across the world. The number has long been seen as a fairly accurate barometer for the level at which most drivers are unable to safely operate a motor vehicle.
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Although we’ve previously blogged about a previous case involving a DWI on a horse out of Kentucky, a more recent article discussed the case of a Montana woman who set out one night drunk, on horseback and also ended up behind bars facing DWI charges. The article says the Billings woman’s rough night began late one the evening when she decided to ride through the middle of town on her horse, obviously intoxicated. The police were called in to deal with the situation and asked her to return to her house several blocks away.

When she arrived back at home the woman, Dawnalee Ellis-Peterson, was apparently riled up and decided to call the police department to give them a piece of her mind. She yelled at the operator about how she ought to be allowed to ride around on her horse without getting pulled over. Not long after the call, an officer was sent to the house to check on Peterson. When the officer arrived, Peterson refused to come to the door, instead yelling that she was drunk and needed to be left in peace. The officer did as she asked and left.

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A recent investigation by the local Minneapolis CBS affiliate discussed the dangerous trend of morning drunk driving arrests. While everyone knows about the thousands of people pulled over by police officers each year for impaired driving, many people who understandably assume these arrests take place on the weekend and late at night.

While it is true that the majority of arrests take place overnight, a surprisingly large number happen during daylight hours, when many people least expect to encounter a drunk driver. However, just because the public may not expect to meet a drunk driver does not mean police are not aware of the trend, in fact, some interviewed in the article begin their shifts specifically by looking for day drunk drivers.

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