Frank Lautenberg: “I stand with Senator Dorgan as a cosponsor of his amendment to require States to adopt this so-called "open container"…”

“I stand with Senator Dorgan as a cosponsor of his amendment to require States to adopt this so-called "open container" law. The law will have the practical effect of prohibiting a very dangerous scenario. Just think, it is currently legal in some States to be driving a car with an open bottle of whiskey alongside, or maybe stuck in the cup holder, just an arm's length away from the driver's lips. A car should not be a bar on wheels. Mr. President, with the passage of my amendment yesterday, .08, this body cast a vote in favor of drunk driving victims and their families. We can all be proud of that vote. Sixty-two Senators voted to inject a sense of sanity in our drunk driving laws, by defining a person as a drunk driver at .08 BAC. We don't want them to reach that level while they are driving a car. This amendment, the National Drunk Driving Prevention Act, is another critical amendment. It makes as much sense as the Zero Tolerance Act, passed in 1995, and .08 BAC. We have to do all we can to prevent drunk driving in this country. Isn't it, perhaps, obvious, that the least we should do, nevertheless, is to prevent the act of driving and drinking to be performed at the same time? We have heard, over the past few days, Mr. President, the extent of the national scourge that drunk driving is in our country. I remind those who can hear us, in 1996, almost 42,000 people were killed in highway crashes. Another 3 million were injured.”