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Let your lawmaker know you oppose SB 5067, which lowers the BAC limit to 0.05%.
The Washington Wine Institute wants your voice heard in opposition to Senate Bill 5067. This bill would lower the state’s allowed Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) for driving from 0.08% to 0.05%. WWI has led the charge against this bill for the past four years, but we are worried our Senate may try to vote on the bill soon. Now is the time to have your voice heard by letting your State Senator know this change in state law will harm your winery and their local wine industry.
We have provided you form content for your message to your Senator. We encourage you to consider writing your own personal message to help send as diverse a set of voices as possible into each Senate office, but please feel free to use the below content as needed.
Dear Senator (insert name),
My name is (your name), a winery owner and constituent in your district, and I am asking you to vote no on SB 5067, which lowers the BAC threshold from .08% to .05%.
Our servers are trained to recognize impairment at the current legal standard of .08 and have full discretion to cut off service at any time. No training currently exists to help servers reliably identify impairment at .05. This creates real challenges for frontline staff who are being asked to enforce a standard they are not equipped to assess.
At the same time, Washington’s wine industry is not thriving — we are struggling. Our winery has experienced declines in tourism visits, foot traffic in our tasting rooms, and overall sales.
Lowering the BAC threshold to .05 is unlikely to achieve the intended public safety outcomes. The experience in Utah, the only state to adopt this policy, has watched their DUI-related fatalities increase every year from 2020 on. Their experiment did not work, and we ask you to not make WA the next one at the expense of your local wine and hospitality industry.
Our current .08 BAC threshold is based on sound science over many decades. The average DUI-related fatality’s BAC is significantly higher, and this bill does nothing to combat the real problem drivers out there today. Instead, the bill punishes responsible drivers who only mean to discover or return to my winery, try some wine, and get themselves home safely.
We need our law enforcement to focus on stopping people who are dangerous, rather than those who are not impaired.
I respectfully ask you to vote NO on SB 5067.
Tell your lawmaker to oppose Senate Bill 5067 by clicking the link below, filling out the form, hitting verify and checking the box for your Senator, and adding in your own personal message or using a version of the content above.