Montana Moves to Ban Drinking Behind Wheel

[papau]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4923585,00.html

Montana Moves to Ban Drinking Behind Wheel

Friday April 8, 2005 9:46 PM


By BOB ANEZ

Associated Press Writer

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Some Montana motorists, the joke goes, measure distances driven by how many beers they can down along the way. But the long-cherished right to have a cold one behind the wheel is about to end. State lawmakers passed an open-container ban Friday that makes Montana one of the last states to outlaw drinking while driving.

The Montana House approved the bill 76-21 and sent it to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who has said he will sign it. It takes effect Oct. 1.

The delay is designed to let Montanans get used to the prohibition, which until now had been found only in cities and towns, not out on the open highway.

Only Mississippi now lacks a state law against open containers, though many cities and counties there also prohibit open containers locally. While Montana had stood to lose $5 million a year in federal highway funds if it failed to pass the law, the debate focused on balancing safety and personal freedom. <snip>


To muster enough support for the bill, supporters accepted what some consider weak penalties for violations. A driver caught with an open container faces a $100 fine, and the offense does not show up on a person's driving record.

[Worst Username Ever]

1. Yeah, the personal freedom to endager the lives of others.

[BulletproofLandshark]

2. Who the hell are the 21 who voted against?!

n/t

[keithjx]

3. Understand this, people.

The law just means we can't have a beer open while we're driving. It's not like we had a "you can drink and drive all you want" law before hand. Living here, and working out in the dirt roads to nowhere that constitute state highways, having a beer on the drive between Havre and Malta was just no big deal.

So I'm a little sad that it passed. I know, I know, all the stats about how one beer impairs and this, that, and the other. But you have to drive those roads to appreciate the desolation we're talking about.
Flame away...
KJ

[mikeiddy]

4. I'm with you on this

I fondly remember getting "go cups" when barhopping in my ill spent youth . . .

[John Q. Citizen]

5. It's the end of an era....

Now if the Dems would use Medical MJ and Hemp farming as a wedge issue against bushco, we might do OK.

[StuckinBFE]

6. What about unpaved roads?

I will miss driving out to go camping with a cold one after work but I do understand the need for additional saftey. But my question is what I hit the dirt road can I have a beer?

[illflem]

8. Some of the state highways in my part of the state are dirt

My bet is the law is just a sham in order to continue receiving federal funds and won't be enforced much.

[StuckinBFE]

9. I heard the fine is $100 and it will not go on your record :)

[confludemocrat]

7. It's a dumb law, its solves nothing

It's Friday after work, its July in Montana and we're headed to Ft. Peck lake to the cabin for the weekend, the driver is not going to drink, but the rest of us can open a cold one from the cooler containing our weekend stock. Whats the f-in problem? Now we have only until October 1 to enjoy this privilege and it's gone.

What's next? Licenses or courses before being able to drive a boat? And no drinking on them either?

Our high death rates per capita from drink-related driving will not be solved by this change in the law.