CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In about an hour, President Clinton signs into law a bill requiring a single national blood-alcohol limit for drunk driving. CNN's Patty Davis is at the White House and she has details of this plan. Hi, Patty.</s>PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. That new federal blood-alcohol limit will now be .08 percent. Right now, states decide when a driver is drunk. More than 30 states, in fact, have a less strict standard than this new federal law will require. They will have until 2004 to adopt these new standards, or they risk losing federal money, crucial money to them for roads and bridges. Now the government says, the .08 level is equivalent in a man, about 170-pound man, to drinking more than four drinks in an hour on an empty stomach. For a woman, 137-pound woman on average, that would be equivalent to drinking three drinks in about an hour. Now critics say the tougher standards will not, in fact, deter drivers, that they are not getting at the heart of the problem, the critics said, which are chronic alcohol abusers who drive. And the critics say that this will penalize social drinkers as well. Proponents say that it will save lives. President Clinton expects to sign that bill into law in about an hour's time here in the Rose Garden at the White House -- Carol.</s>LIN: Patty, how many lives do the supporters think that this new law would save?</s>DAVIS: Well, the White House is pointing to several studies which show about 500 lives a year. And in fact, Illinois, they point to, put this similar standard .08 percent blood alcohol limit into effect about three years ago. In the first year, about a 10-percent drop in drunken driving fatality. Since then, however, that number has risen a bit, but they are pointing to success stories of, they say, 500 lives or so -- Carol.</s>LIN: All right, thank you very much, Patty Davis at the White House.
Clinton to Sign Blood Alcohol Limit Law