That’s something worth celebrating.

Every person who decides to call an Uber, hands over the keys, or simply waits before driving represents a success. Those decisions save lives.

But there is another kind of impaired driver.

At my final DUI, my blood alcohol concentration was 0.49.

I have no memory of deciding to drive.

I was blacked out.

There was no careful weighing of consequences, no calculation of blood alcohol limits, no moment of asking myself whether I was “OK to drive.”

There was no real decision at all.

That’s the part of alcoholism we rarely talk about.

Alcoholism doesn’t just impair your ability to drive.

It impairs your ability to decide whether you should be driving.

That isn’t an excuse for impaired driving. If anything, it underscores why severe alcohol addiction can be so dangerous. It also reminds us that enforcement alone cannot solve every part of this problem.

Utah deserves credit for leading the nation with its 0.05 law. A 2026 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that Utah experienced greater reductions in alcohol-related traffic fatalities than neighboring states after the law took effect, reinforcing earlier research showing that the law has made Utah’s roads safer.

The question is what comes next.

Strong laws discourage many people from driving after drinking because those individuals are still making rational choices. But severe alcohol addiction gradually erodes judgment itself. By the time some people reach advanced alcoholism, they are no longer carefully weighing legal risks before getting behind the wheel.

If Utah wants even fewer impaired drivers ten years from now, it should become just as ambitious about preventing alcohol addiction as it has been about deterring drunk driving.

Every student learns that driving drunk is dangerous.

Far fewer learn how alcohol use disorder actually develops.

Students learn the legal consequences of a DUI.

They rarely learn about tolerance, denial, dependence, or the subtle warning signs that often appear years before a first arrest.

They learn how to call an Uber.

They don’t learn how addiction quietly changes judgment long before someone ever reaches for a set of car keys.

That education shouldn’t stop with schools. Parents, physicians, coaches, faith leaders, recovery organizations, and people living in long-term recovery all have a role to play. Honest conversations about alcohol use disorder should begin long before anyone faces a DUI.

Looking back, I can now recognize warning signs in my own life that I either ignored or simply didn’t understand. I often wonder how differently my life might have unfolded if someone had explained not only the dangers of drunk driving, but the progression of addiction itself.

Utah had the courage to become the first state to adopt a 0.05 BAC law.

Perhaps it can lead the nation again.

Strong DUI laws save lives.

Preventing addiction saves the people who might otherwise someday break those laws.

Jay Werther is a resident of Park City and the founder of the Fair Identity Project.