New York senator carrying on campaign to lower state's blood alcohol

Long Island Business News, Dec 13, 2002 by John Kiernan

During the state legislative session that begins next week in Albany, the state Senate is expected to pass a bill to lower the state's legal limit for blood alcohol content while driving from .10 percent to .08 percent. This bill, sponsored by Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., R- Merrick, is the same as an Assembly bill that passed earlier in the year. If it were to pass the Senate, New York would become the 32nd state to use the .08 measurement as its threshold for driving while intoxicated.

Even though the legislation would win Senate passage in literally the final hours of the 2002 session, no one should think that Fuschillo has embraced this issue only recently. In fact, he has been trying to pass a much more comprehensive DWI bill for the last two years.

With Fuschillo leading the way, the Senate has passed legislation each of the past two sessions that not only lowered the .10 standard to .08, but also increased penalties, particularly for repeat drunk drivers. The problem in the past was that the Assembly did not agree with penalties as tough as those contained in the Senate bill. The Assembly addressed the penalty issue in separate legislation, but neither chamber would accept the penalty provisions passed by the other. As a result, we have seen a two-year stalemate, which has cost the state federal highway money.

Ironically, instead of becoming the 32nd state to use the .08 standard, New York could have become the first. The .10 DWI standard was established 30 years ago by legislation passed by the late state Sen. John D. Caemmerer of East Williston. The bill was signed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1972 and was one of many DWI bills that Caemmerer helped pass in the 1970s, including the STOP DWI program. Caemmerer had lowered the DWI blood alcohol level in earlier legislation, first from .15 to .12, and then from .12 to .10 in the 1972 bill.

In 1974 Caemmerer introduced legislation to lower the standard to .08. At the time, most people thought the .08 level was too low, and many states still had a .12 law in effect. Groups like SADD and MADD did not have the political presence that they have today. Caemmerer moved the bill several times in the Senate and kept re-introducing it each session until he died in 1982. But there was no general support for lowering the limit again. The legislation was later sponsored by the late Sen. Norman Levy, who preceded Fuschillo in the Senate.

In 1998, Congress passed a law that required each state to lower the limit to .08 or face the loss of federal highway funds. Congress had used this approach when it wanted mandatory seat belt laws to be adopted in the 1980s. In 1973, the first seat belt law was introduced in New York by - you guessed it - Caemmerer. But it did not become law until 1983. Passage of the Fuschillo bill next week allows the sate to comply with the federal mandate and stop the loss of funds, but Fuschillo should not be criticized for the stalemate.

As demonstrated above, major changes in highway safety legislation do not come easily. Fuschillo tried to use the pressure of the federal mandate to pass the tougher penalties for repeat offenders that are really needed. This was his best opportunity to achieve his goal, and at the least the Fuschillo bill will lower a DWI limit that has been in place for 30 years.