NC GOP's right flank pushes tougher DWI laws

Some of the state’s most conservative lawmakers rolled out legislation Thursday to crack down on drunk driving, including a bill that would make North Carolina the second state in the nation to lower its DWI threshold to .05 blood alcohol concentration.

Mothers against Drunk Driving and law enforcement officials from the western part of the state support the bills, which so far have limited sponsorship in the North Carolina House of Representatives.

House Bill 148, which lowers the allowed BAC from .08 to .05, has four sponsors, all from the Republican party’s right-flank Freedom Caucus. Only Utah has made this move, and the proposal faces an uphill battle in the North Carolina legislature

“I think it’s worth a discussion, but it’s probably not going to move at this time,” House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, said Thursday.

State Rep. Mike Clampitt, the bill’s lead sponsor, said North Carolina has an impaired driving epidemic.

“This is not to tell individuals they don’t have a right to drink alcohol,” said Clampitt, R-Swain. “But, if they do, they do not have a right to operate a vehicle and endanger the lives of others.”

Lowering the level to .05 would lower the number of drinks it takes to qualify as impaired. Research done by Wisconsin State Patrol's toxicology lab shows that a woman who weighs over 110 pounds could drink two glasses of wine in an hour and have a BAC of .074. North Carolina moved its threshold to .08 more than 20 years ago.

"You'd wrap up a lot of people who really aren't impaired, they really aren't a risk out there," said Daniel Meier, a defense attorney in Durham who opposes the bill. "You're not getting to .08 at two or three drinks, you can get to a .05 at around there."

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey joined Clampitt at a morning press conference on the proposed new bills, calling HB 148 “an important bill.”

“Even if [this bill] saves one life, it’s certainly worth it,” the Republican commissioner said.

Ollie Jeffers, a regional MADD president, said impaired driving is “100% preventable.”

“Let’s save lives,” she said. “Enough is enough. … There is no reason not to. Unless you think that this is going to affect your family members or somebody that you know. Then I say that you’re being selfish because you’ve got to think about others.”

Bill supporters struggled to explain why similar arguments haven’t caught on with GOP lawmakers who consistently reject them from gun control advocates. In recent years firearms passed car crashes as the No. 1 cause of death for American children, and the General Assembly’s Republican majority voted this week to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto on a bill that loosens state gun laws.

Clampitt called the two issues “apples and oranges” and that he didn’t want to politicize his press conference on the DWI bills. Causey said the comparison between guns and alcohol might not be a fair one, but he acknowledged “some similarities.”

“You can pass law after law, but if somebody’s not going to abide by them … it’s not going to make any difference to those folks,” he said.

After the press conference, N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police Executive Director said the difference is the DWI bill regulates usage, while gun bills typically regulate sales. Bill supporters said alcohol sales in Utah increased after the allowed BAC there dropped to .05.

“The bars don’t close down,” said Ellen Pitt, head of a volunteer DWI task force in Western North Carolina. “There’s not a huge number of extra arrests … what happens is people drink much more responsibly.”

The N.C. Bar Owners Association supports the proposal.

“As an association, we always advocate for the safe and responsible consumption of alcohol to maintain the best social atmosphere for our patrons," association Executive Director Tiffany Howell said in a statement.

In addition to HB 148, Clampitt and other sponsors filed several other bills tinkering with the state’s DWI laws, generally tightening them. They are house bills 85, 147, 211 and 212.

Correction: This article initially misstated the number of the bill hat would lower the state's allowed BAC limit. It is House Bill 148.