(Des Moines)– The Iowa Senate has voted to toughen the state’s drunken boating laws, lowering the blood-alcohol level that brings an automatic conviction and mking the law consistent with the state’s drunken driving laws.
State Senator David Johnson of Ocheyedan was a main backer of the measure. He says there have been too many fatalities and serious injuries associated with drunken boating.
Under current law, boaters with a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 of a percent or higher are automatically convicted. The measure approved on Tuesday would lower that to 0.08 of a percent.
That’s the same level to which motorists are held accountable.
The measure now goes to the House where it’s died in previous sessions.
(Story from the Associated Press.).
