Backer: 'Better late than never'

By Joe Gerrety and Shannon Lohrmann, Journal and Courier

INDIANAPOLIS -- For more than a decade, Sen. Tom Wyss fought with his colleagues in the Indiana Senate to approve a measure lowering the state's legal blood-alcohol content.

But in the end, he admits it was the federal threat of withholding money for highway construction that made the difference.

"I think that it was the only reason we got the bill through when we did," Wyss said.

They approved the change to 0.08 percent in 2001 and it went into effect July 1 of that year. Before that, the blood-alcohol content limit was 0.10 percent.

Indiana had at least 120 fewer traffic deaths in 2002 than 2001, according to Wyss, citing preliminary data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. There were 60 fewer alcohol-related crash deaths, accounting for half of the decline.

Already this year, research shows 55 fewer Hoosiers died in traffic crashes through April 25 than the same time last year.

"We're down again," Wyss said.

In the 10 years he sponsored the same bill -- usually the appropriate Senate Bill 8 -- he brought in Hoosiers who lost family members to alcohol-related crashes, including Lafayette's Dan Towery, to testify in Senate committees. Year after year, the panel would vote not to send the legislation to the full Senate.

Money talks

After years of emphasizing increased safety, Wyss in 2001 changed his tactic to emphasize the millions in lost federal highway money.

"Those are projects that I would like to see in my district and areas across the state," he said. "Those are projects that need to be done."

Still, several lawmakers voted against the bill as a protest to what they saw as a federal mandate. In reality, Congress can't impose a federal standard on the state, but can offer incentives for the state to change. In this case, the incentive was money for highway construction and repair.

Better late than never, Towery said.

"I would like to have seen the legislators do the right thing early on. But I am gratified that it was done, even if it took the dollars to make an influence on the legislators," he said.

While calling lawmakers' concerns about federal mandates a "smokescreen" because of all of the mandates the Legislature imposes on local units of government, Wyss said he didn't mind the "carrot-and-stick" approach by Congress.