HI Alcohol Policy Alliance pushes to lower BAC limit from 0.08 to 0.05 percent

The Hawai‘i Alcohol Policy Alliance returned to the State Capitol today to continue advocating for legislation aimed at reducing alcohol-related traffic fatalities and injuries.

The statewide organization is pushing for a bill that would lower the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for drivers from 0.08 to 0.05 percent. This initiative is backed by growing support, building on momentum from 2024.

The Alliance, which advocates for evidence-based alcohol policies, believes the measure will lead to safer roads and healthier communities.

“We will not tolerate even one more alcohol-related traffic fatality,” said the Alliance’s director, Rick Collins. “Last year, nearly half of traffic fatalities across our great state involved impaired driving. We urge our lawmakers to take action this year.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, approximately 37 people die in drunk-driving crashes every day in the US – or one person every 39 minutes. In 2022 alone, 13,524 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving accidents, and many more were injured.

Despite a nationwide decrease in traffic fatalities for 10 straight quarters, traffic fatalities increased in Hawaii last year. The fatality rate of alcohol-related crashes in Hawai‘i has increased since 2021 and remained almost unchanged from 2023-2024.

“It’s time to do everything we can to reverse this trend,” Collins said. “Lowering the BAC is proven to save lives, and it is an easy change to make.”

With the exception of Utah, where the legal BAC for driving was lowered to 0.05 percent in 2018, the United States is in the minority worldwide with its 0.08 limit. In August 2024, The New York Times journalist Dana G. Smith explored America’s high drunk driving limit and legislative efforts such as Hawai‘i’s to lower the BAC to 0.05. According to the article, “Several national groups, such as the National Transportation Safety Board, back the change.

Even AB InBev, the largest beer company in the world (owner of over 600 brands including Budweiser, Bud Light, Corona and Stella Artois) has said it “will not oppose efforts to reduce the legal drinking BAC limit .05% anywhere in the world,” according to a report it published.

2025 will mark the fifth year in a row Hawai‘i Alcohol Policy Alliance has lobbied for legislation to lower the BAC. They argue that support for the bill has grown “because it makes sense,” adding:

• Drivers are significantly impaired at a 0.05 percent BAC, increasing the risk of a crash.
• Reducing the BAC to 0.05 percent is linked to fewer instances of impaired driving and its consequences.
• A December 2022 statewide poll of Hawai’i voters showed that the majority (62 percent) of the State’s voters support lowering the BAC from 0.08 to 0.05 percent (Hawai’i Alcohol Policies Study, SMS Research).
• Lowering the BAC from 0.08 to 0.05 is a general deterrent to impaired driving and affects all would-be-drinking drivers.
• Over 100 countries have reduced their legal BAC levels to 0.05 percent or lower. Specifically, all states in Australia have a 0.05 percent BAC limit. France, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Germany have lowered their limit to 0.05 percent BAC, while Sweden, Norway, Japan, and Russia have set their limit at 0.02 percent BAC. In most of those countries, traffic fatalities in which drivers had an illegal BAC are under 25 percent, with many falling in the single-digit range.

In 1983, Utah became the first state to lower the BAC for impaired driving from 0.10 to 0.08. It took almost 20 years for the other 49 to follow suit and for the nation to see its alcohol-related traffic deaths drop by 10 percent. The National Transportation Safety Board has been urging states to lower DUI limits to 0.05 since 2013. Since Utah’s 0.05 BAC law in 2018, no other state has succeeded in passing similar legislation, though Hawai‘i and five others are considering it.