Colorado DWI Arrests on the Rise

Arrests are on the increase in Colorado after that state lowered its blood alcohol level standards from .10 to .08 last year. Last year the state Senate gave approval to the lowering of the levels for DUI offenses in order to comply with national standards. Some $50 million in federal highway funds was being withheld from Colorado because of their initial refusal to lower their alcohol levels for drunk driving convictions.

Colorado was the 48th state to adopt the lower levels, with Delaware and Massachusetts adopting the new levels last year as well.

A recent Colorado report on the effects of the new levels showed that arrests were up, and that 3,698 people with blood alcohol levels between .08 and .10 percent were arrested last year. That amount is about ten percent of all total DWI arrests during the same time period.

Authorities caution that the statistics are only a sampling of data and long-term results, including an increase in safety on the roads, have yet to be seen. Arrests for driving with a blood-alcohol level underneath .10 tripled with the new laws.

Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Jeff Goodwin recently stated that the results in increased safety on the roads have not been seen yet. Goodwin suggested that because the laws are still fairly new, it is not certain whether they have made driving in Colorado safer.

Andy McElhany, Colorado State Senator for District 12 and supporter of the bill, is concerned that the new arrests may not mean that the roads are indeed safer. McElhany supported changing the laws in a large part because of the federal highway funds that the government was threatening to not give to the state.

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