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MLBA: NHTSA Official's Testimony Deliberately Misleads Minnesota House Committee

22 January 1998

Federal Official's Testimony Deliberately Misleads Minnesota House Committee, Says MLBA

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 -- A National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) official deliberately misled the Minnesota House
Judiciary Committee yesterday with impeachable testimony about the effects of
lowering the drunk driving arrest threshold, said John Berglund, executive
director Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA).
    James Fell, NHTSA's chief of research and evaluation, employed half-truths
and false statements in an effort to mislead the House Committee investigating
the effects of legislation that would lower Minnesota's drunk driving arrest
threshold from .10% blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) to .08% BAC, Berglund
said.
    "The issue before the state legislature is fraught with emotion and will
have a profound impact on many Minnesota residents," Berglund said. "It is
incumbent upon all of us to stick to the facts as we determine how to best
combat the drunk driving problem. Unfortunately, it appears that NHTSA's
political agenda is driving the agency's research conclusions."
    In his testimony, Mr. Fell claimed California experienced a 12% reduction
in alcohol-related fatalities after they adopted the .08% BAC threshold.
    Fell knows there was no such reduction in California. The 12% reduction
figure was a prediction made by a consultant about what might happen following
the implementation of the .08% BAC threshold.
    Fell knows that following the implementation of the .08% BAC threshold,
California's alcohol-related deaths did decline -- but only by 6.1%. During
that same period, alcohol-related deaths for the entire country -- most of
which was covered by .10% BAC laws -- declined 6.3%.  (In fact, Minnesota saw
a 14.5% decline in alcohol-related deaths during this period.)
    Fell is also aware that the California Department of Motor Vehicles has
done their own research. According to the California DMV, the study cited by
Fell was wrong about the 12% figure. The California DMV said their assessment
"revealed no statistically significant effects associated with the timing of
the .08% law among HBD (had been drinking) fatal accidents."
    Fell also claimed NHTSA has found "significant decreases in four states
that adopted .08 on nine measures of alcohol-related fatalities."
    Fell is telling less than half the story. The NHTSA study in question
looked at 30 measures. By reporting decreases in "nine measures," Fell fails
to report that in the same study there were 21 measures showing the alcohol-
related fatality rate increased or failed to move.
    In his testimony, Fell also stated that NHTSA recommended that all states
should establish a .08% BAC arrest threshold in two reports to the U.S.
Congress on BAC limits.
    Actually, there was only one report to Congress, the one cited above. Fell
counted a preliminary draft of that report to get to "two." Fell, who co-
authored that report, also failed to tell the committee that in his own report
he admitted the analysis "does not account for other potentially important
factors, e.g., other alcohol legislation, that could influence the impact of
the .08 BAC legislation."
    "We Minnesotans should be troubled that we're getting half-truths out of
Washington, DC," Berglund said.
    For more information or copies of support documentation, contact the MLBA
at 612-486-0910.

SOURCE  Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association