Jacksonville University business dean discusses DUI blood-alcohol recommendation in Times-Union article

Pub owners should be concerned about a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation to lower the driving-under-in-the-influence blood-alcohol threshold, Jacksonville University Business Dean Don Capener says in a May 24 Florida Times-Union article.

“Those (regulations) increase the costs and risks for businesses,” Dr. Capener said in the T-U article. “How it’s implemented becomes the issue because it can have a large impact on businesses. … In the case of these bars, it may be that they’ll find that individuals will decrease a bar tab from a $15 or $20 bar tab down to half of that or less.”

Capener agrees with Jacksonville pub owners who said in the article that lowering the driving-under-the-inflence standard from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent of alcohol in the blood could hit businesses hard.

“When it hurts legitimate businesses in the pocket, all of us have to say, ‘How did that happen?’ It’s not a sleight of hand. … But you have to think that there’s going to be an impact,” Capener said. “In terms of the number of people who are willing to stop by at their favorite pub after work, that number could decrease.”

Read the full Times-Union article here.