NYC Pushes For Stricter 0.05% Drunken Driving Blood-Alcohol Limit

NEW YORK CITY — New York’s long-standing 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content threshold for drunken driving soon could be cut off.

Or, at least that’s the hope of Mayor Eric Adams, prominent city politicians and advocates.

A group of city officials announced Thursday that they’ll lobby lawmakers in Albany to lower the state’s drunken driving blood-alcohol content limit to 0.05 percent.

The planned push received strong support from Eric McClure, the executive director of Streets PAC, a nonprofit group that advocates for street safety measures.

“The stigma against driving while intoxicated has seemingly waned during the pandemic, with persons driving under the influence causing more and deadlier crashes,” McClure said in a statement. “Successfully lowering the legal threshold will help make our streets and roads safer.”

Many city officials, including former Mayor Bill de Blasio, have pushed for a lower drunken driving limit.

Adams’ support comes as the city closes out yet another deadly year for traffic crashes. There have been at least 231 traffic fatalities in 2022, according to city Vision Zero data.

Last year, 43 traffic deaths were directly tied to people driving while intoxicated, which itself was a 60 percent increase over the previous three years’ average, officials said.

Transportation officials tied their push for stricter drunken driving limits with a pledge that NYPD officers will step up enforcement of laws against speeding and DWIs.

“But even with expanded enforcement, too many crashes around the holidays will involve reckless drinking and driving, so we are making a strong call for Albany to reduce the BAC threshold to .05 to save even more lives,” said Ydanis Rodriguez, the city’s transportation commissioner, in a statement.