My wife and I have just returned home from our latest enjoyable annual ski trip to Salt Lake City — a tradition we started in 1985.
We are writing to you because next year we intend to visit Colorado instead because of the pending implementation of your new alcohol driving law, which is unique in the United States.
For more than 30 years, we have enjoyed staying in south Salt Lake hotels and visiting the increasing number of fine brewpubs in the greater Salt Lake area for dinner after skiing. Your new law will make this impossible.
I’m sure somebody will immediately cite “safety” but, as a mathematician, I have seen no relevant statistics analyzing accidents caused by drivers with BAC between 0.05 and 0.08. Anything else is irrelevant.
And hospitality industry managers that we talked with on our recent visit suggested a quite different political motive for the change.
Needless to say, we are disappointed that we have to abandon Utah’s fine ski areas. Good luck with the future of your tourism industry.
Ian Walton, Santa Cruz, Calif.