Assembly urged to follow through with DWI bill

Let’s hope the Assembly goes along with the Senate in approving three bills — sponsored by state Sen. Barbara Buono — intended to keep drunken drivers off the road after repeat convictions.

These bills were introduced after Michael Partipilo — a 17-year-old honor student — was killed in a collision with a four-time DWI offender. That four-time offender had a blood alcohol level of 0.245 percent, not only well above the legal limit of 0.08 percent, but also well above the former limit of 0.10 percent.

On Feb. 4, this newspaper ran an article explaining how hard it will be for drivers to comply with the new 0.08 percent blood alcohol limit. There was no good reason to lower the limit from 0.10 to 0.08 percent. That same article ended with some telling statistics — in the year 2000, 62 people were killed by drivers lawfully below 0.08, only 26 by drivers with 0.08 and 0.09 percent blood alcohol, and a whopping 231 by drivers unlawfully at or above 0.10.You could almost be persuaded by these figures that it’s safer to drive with blood alcohol between 0.08 and 0.10 than below 0.08. I wouldn’t go that far. But I would argue that there isn’t a meaningful difference, especially since there are so many drivers with blood alcohol way over the limit still on the road.

Laws aimed at repeat offenders are needed. Laws that make it hard for ordinary people to know whether or not they can lawfully drive are not.

Martin B. Brilliant

Holmdel