Lawmakers Aim To Lower Legal Blood Alcohol Limit In California To .05%

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Lawmakers introduced legislation Monday that would lower the legal Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limit from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent.

Assembly Bill 1713, known as Liam's Law, would trigger a DUI charge for any driver found behind the wheel with a BAC over 0.05 percent.

The bill is named in honor of a 15-month-old who died in an alcohol-related traffic crash in 2016.

According to co-author Senator Jerry Hill, 100 countries have 0.05 BAC laws, and the level is recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board to reduce the 1,000 DUI deaths and 20,000 injuries in California each year.