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Responding to calls for tougher highway safety laws, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Friday that Vermont should consider lowering the blood-alcohol threshold for a person charged with drunk driving, DUI lawyers hear.

Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, said he would like lawmakers to begin discussing lowering the legal limit from .08 percent blood-alcohol concentration to .05 percent, making Vermont the state with the lowest threshold in the country. Right now, every state has a .08 percent limit. With just more than a month expected to remain in the legislative session, Lippert said he knows that notion won't pass now. But he said he wanted to start that conversation this year with an eye toward taking a serious look at the proposal in the next biennium, which begins next January, DUI lawyers are told.

"We've already seen the legal limit change several times in our lifetime," Lippert said Friday, after the Judiciary Committee spent hours examining drunk driving statistics prepared by the state. "If we changed it to .05, it would send a very serious message that impaired driving is not tolerated on Vermont roads."

That was just one of the ideas on the table for the Judiciary Committee as it began a long look at more than a half dozen bills dealing with intoxicated driving and highway safety. Lawmakers are shining a spotlight on these issues just days after more than 200 people crowded into the Statehouse, urging the state to get tougher on drunk drivers, DUI attorneys report.

Tragedy was the catalyst for Tuesday's anti-drunk driving rally. Last year, 18-year-old Nick Fournier was killed on Interstate 89 when the car he was a passenger in was struck by a vehicle driven by Shawn Burritt, 32, of Jericho, DUI attorneys report.

Burritt, who was driving the wrong way down the highway and told police he had consumed eight or nine beers at a bar earlier, is a repeat offender – he had three previous convictions for driving under the influence and his license to drive had been suspended for the rest of his life, DUI attorneys report.

Lawmakers also had serous questions Friday about why Burritt, who was pulled over months before the fatal car accident for driving with a suspended license, was still out on the streets despite being in violation of his probation, DUI attorneys report.

Vermont Corrections Commissioner Robert Hofmann, who was present that morning to discuss the financial impact on state prisons under some of the proposed DUI law reforms, said he "didn't want to finger-point," but that a breakdown in communication among local police and prosecutors was likely to blame, DUI attorneys report.

Rep. Willem Jewett, D-Ripton, called that communications breakdown a "failure of the system."

"We would normally be advised of that," Hofmann said. "But the fact remains that this person … I don't want to point fingers, but this young man died because this guy drank too much alcohol and got behind the wheel of a car."

Tougher DUI laws would also mean higher corrections' costs for Vermont. Under the toughest DUI changes proposed — which range from increased criminal penalties for repeat offenders and setting up new administrative roadblocks via the vehicle registration process – Vermont's Corrections budget would increase by nearly $2.3 million, DUI attorneys said.

For example, if there was a mandatory six-month jail sentence for third drunk driving convictions, it would cost the state more than $2.2 million for the additional 105 new prison beds required, DUI attorneys report.

Hofmann said he understands the urge to get tougher on drunk driving, DUI attorneys report.

"As much as sex offenders grab the headlines, we are not as much at risk from them as the thousands of people who get in a car and drive drunk," DUI attorneys reported.

According to information from the Vermont Governor's Highway Safety Office, there were 23 alcohol-related highway deaths in the state last year. Slightly more than 3,900 people were charged with drunk driving in the state in 2006, DUI attorneys report.

Lippert said he first started thinking about a lower DUI threshold 10 years ago when lawmakers were revising the criminal statutes. He even had a one-line pitch for the idea: ".05 by 2005." He joked Friday that maybe it could be updated to "0.5 by '010."

Another option to reduce drunk driving in Vermont floated by Lippert on Friday was targeted more at habitual offenders – like the man who killed Fournier last year. He suggested that installing ignition interlock devices in the vehicles of people who, for example, are convicted of their third or more DUI charge, DUI attorneys report.

These devices are like breathalyzers on the dashboard of cars. If the person in the driver's seat has too much alcohol in their blood, the car won't start. New Mexico mandated such devices for first time offenders and many other states are also considering that measure, DUI attorneys report.

Lippert said former Middlebury College President John McCardell, who has launched an effort to reduce the drinking age from 21 to 18, suggested the ignition locks as an idea in a recent letter to the committee, DUI attorneys are told.