WA: Advocates Leads Coalition in Urging State Senate to Lower BAC Limit

Read the full alert here.

Leading public health and safety organizations urge you to lower the limit of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) while driving to .05% in Washington State.

Support Senate Bill (SB) 5067!

The Issue:

• Traffic crashes are a deadly and costly threat to Washington families and visitors that require urgent attention and action.

• In 2024, there were an overall estimated 730 fatalities on state roads according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which is a 36 percent increase since 2019.

• Thirty-six (36) percent (294) of Washington traffic deaths in 2023 involved drunk driving which exceeds the national average and was a higher proportion than in all but six states.

• Traffic fatalities involving drunk driving increased 62 percent in the state from 2019 to 2023.

• Traffic crashes also cost Washington taxpayers $6.34 billion annually, amounting to a “crash tax” of $832 on every resident, according to a 2019 analysis. Updating for inflation only, that equates to $8 billion in 2025 dollars.

The Solution:

• Adopting a .05 percent BAC limit will dissuade drinking and driving and curb needless highway deaths and injuries which threaten all road users.

• Research and laboratory evidence find that most adults are significantly impaired at .05 percent BAC.

• When behind the wheel of a car, driving skills are degraded resulting in reduced coordination, decreased ability to track moving objects, difficulty steering and diminished response to emergency driving situations.

• The risk of being killed in a single-vehicle crash with BACs of .05 to .079 percent is seven to 21 times higher than for drivers without measurable alcohol.

The Proof:

• Advancing .05 percent BAC legislation will reduce dangerous drinking and driving across all levels of impairment, including high BAC, to prevent deaths and injuries.

• If all states adopted a .05 percent BAC or lower law, fatal alcohol crashes are estimated to decline 11 percent, and 1,790 lives would be saved each year.

• More than 100 countries have already adopted .05 percent BAC or lower limits and affirmed the safety benefits of the policy.

• In these countries, average alcohol consumption is equal or higher to that in the United States, but they have less deaths caused by drunk driving.

• NHTSA released a study, Evaluation of Utah’s .05 BAC Per Se Law, which finds that Utah experienced a nearly 20 percent drop in traffic fatalities in 2019 (248), the first year the law was in effect, compared to 2016 (281), the last year before the law was enacted. Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities were 30 percent lower that year than the average for the previous five years. The study also shows that state revenues from taxes related to the hospitality industry continued to rise, and tourism increased. This improvement in roadway safety occurred despite an increase in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and outpaced neighboring states as well as the nation as a whole.

• Additionally, when states lowered their BAC limits from .10 to .08 percent, an estimated 24,868 lives were saved between 1983 and 2014.

SB 5067 Will Protect Washington Families and Visitors to the State!