Although the concern is admirable, it is doubtful whether a drunk-driving bill that is currently up for consideration by the Illinois Legislature will make the state’s roads any safer.

The decision before state lawmakers seems to deal with more than whether there is a need to lower the present legal level of intoxication from a blood alcohol content of .10 to .08 percent. Rather the choice the legislators appear to be faced with is whether they should cast the “politically easy vote”—against drunk driving.

Legislators are right to question the rationale behind the members of the House Judiciary II Committee’s recommendation of the bill.

A report issued by Secretary of State Jim Edgar showed the average person arrested last year for drunken driving has a blood alcohol content of .18 percent, almost double the legal limit.

Because the average drunken driver arrested has a blood-alcohol content nearly double the level of the proposed bill, lowering the legal limit would have little real effect on keeping the dangerously intoxicated drivers out of their cars and off the road.

While drunk driving is a concern that must be dealt with, it is questionable if such an insignificant decrease will have any effect. Especially when the amount under consideration is the negligible difference between drinking six beers and seven beers.