Commercial drivers, including aircraft pilots, have a blood alcohol limit of 0.04 percent. Refusing a breath, blood or urine test is also considered a DWI crime. Driving while intoxicated is always a misdemeanor in Minnesota. Repeat or high-alcohol offenses are gross misdemeanors, but they, too, are limited to a sentence of up to one year in jail. Only when drivers cause injuries and are charged with criminal vehicular operation, a felony, do they risk going to prison for more than a year.
Activists say the existing laws fail to dissuade drinking and driving.
Last year, nearly half of Minnesotans arrested for DWI had been charged with a similar offense before. David Rossini, a repeat offender who became an anti-DWI activist after causing a fatal wreck and going to prison for four years, said society has long minimized the crime. His second, eight years later, landed him in jail for just a few days. When Bettcher paid for his gasoline, he asked the clerk not to call police, saying he didn't have insurance. Then Bettcher pulled away, driving a friend's Lincoln Town Car, ripping the still-attached hose from the gasoline pump.