Must You Have More Than One? : A driver doesn’t have to be bombed to become a problem

Witnesses near a San Diego Freeway exit in Orange County Monday must have thought they were watching a stunt on a studio lot. A car flew off the exit ramp, flipped through the air and crash-landed in a restaurant parking lot. The driver was charged with drunk driving and trying to elude a motorcycle officer, but fortunately he was not hurt. And the driver suffered only minor injuries--if major embarrassment and arrest.

Things do not always turn out so fortunately. In a state where the automobile is a way of life, where so many depend for their safety on the judgment of others who happen to share the road at any moment, it makes sense to have some of the toughest anti-drunk-driving restrictions in the country.

This year, California joined Maine, Utah and Oregon by adopting a stricter blood-alcohol standard. That reduction of the level from .10 to .08 appears to be doing some of what it was intended to do, increasing significantly the number of arrests and convictions for drunk driving. Statewide, arrests are up 16% and convictions are up 10%.

Any drunk-driving law is most effective in the deterrent stage, and that’s harder to quantify. But by reducing the legal limit by what amounts to one drink per hour, California has given the social drinker food for thought, which is not a bad companion for one’s holiday glass of cheer.

The new limit itself was a political compromise; it’s actually .03 higher than the .05 level at which the American Medical Assn. says the average person’s motor, hand-eye coordination and depth perception skills begin to deteriorate.

That means a driver doesn’t have to be bombed to become a problem.

And since July, 105,000 drivers statewide have had their licenses pulled under the new prompt suspension law, a tough penalty indeed for Southern California, which lacks an advanced mass transportation network.

The holidays are a good time to affirm sense about drinking and driving. The state’s tough penalties are an incentive for that.