Utah’s worst drunk drivers who want to skirt a new state law that bans them from buying alcohol shouldn’t try to get around that by crossing into Wyoming to get their booze.
That’s the message bars and liquor stores in Evanston just across the border want Utahns to hear.
“If Utah says you can’t buy alcohol because you’re too bad of a drunk driver, then we’re not going to sell to you either,” said Kim Bateman, who owns Discount Liquor in Evanston, which bills itself as the “largest seller of alcohol in southwest Wyoming.”
Not only that, but she also owns most of the other retail liquor outlets in the town, including Spirits of Red Mountain, Border Beverage, and Cowboy Joe’s Liquor Barn.
Along with local bar owners, Bateman said she expects to start seeing more people from Utah trying to buy their liquor just across the border, similar to Colorado residents who drive up Interstate 25 to get fireworks that are banned in that state.
That’s because Utah — already considered to have the strictest drunk driving laws in the nation — has a new law that went into effect Jan. 1, banning anyone convicted of what’s considered an “extreme” DUI from buying alcohol anywhere in the state.
Any blood alcohol content measurement for a driver of 0.160% or greater is considered “extreme” under the new law, called the Interdicted Persons Amendment, or House Bill 437.
That’s more than three times the legal limit in Utah, which has the lowest intoxicated threshold in the U.S. at 0.05%.
A Step Beyond
Most other states have laws that restrict drunk drivers from operating vehicles while intoxicated, like restricting access to alcohol, taking driver’s licenses, or requiring interlock devices on vehicles.
Utah’s approach of banning people from buying alcohol altogether seems to be a first.
To keep track of those “extreme” drunk drivers, Utah will issue new driver’s licenses or official state IDs that say “NO ALCOHOL SALE” in all capital letters in a red banner right over a person’s photo.
That should make it easy for retail liquor stores or bars to enforce the new law, Bateman said.
“That’s if Utah does their job,” she said, adding that it’s not on her or other business owners in Wyoming to identify those scofflaws for Utah.
“If they show us a driver’s license is ‘no alcohol’ on it, we’re definitely going to honor that,” Bateman said. “We take that very seriously. For us to be respected as alcohol sellers, we have to police it on our end.
“If Utah does their job and flag that license, then we are going to honor that.”
Wyoming Doesn’t Have To Do Anything
While Bateman and two bars in Evanston contacted by Cowboy State Daily said they will absolutely not sell to Utah’s worst drunk drivers, they’re not obligated to recognize that state’s alcohol ban, said Mike Moser, executive director for the Wyoming State Liquor Association.
“That’s a Utah law, not a Wyoming law,” he said. “That would be a retailer choice, but I can see that (Bateman’s take) as being prudent.
“Our retailers are very cautious with stuff like that,” Moser added. “We’re very careful, because we own liquor licenses that are very hard to get. We tend to err on the side of caution on things like that.”
While Moser said he or his organization would never tell an individual business what it should or shouldn’t do, he’s not surprised they don’t see Utah’s new law as a way to cash in.
“You’re not going to pay the mortgage off that customer,” he said. “I wouldn’t tell them what to do, but I applaud them for doing that.”
It’s the same for the Wyoming Highway Patrol, which said it intends to continue to aggressively enforce Wyoming’s DUI laws.
“We will enforce Wyoming and federal laws the best of our abilities,” said WHP spokesman Aaron Brown when asked about the new Utah law. If Utah residents “come into Wyoming and happen to come to Wyoming to buy alcohol, then go back into Utah, that’s the risk they’re taking.”
Enforcing the no-sell rule will be a little easier in Utah because retail liquor stores there are state-operated, Moser said.
About Responsibility
Bateman agrees with Moser, saying that each business owner has to make his or her own decisions, but that anyone who cares about promoting responsible behavior with and around alcohol would deny those flagged Utah IDs.
“We see on a day-to-day basis a lot of people in Utah who are customers of ours, and we appreciate the business we get,” she said. “Our payroll gets met from the folks in Utah, and most of them are all good people and they’re responsible people.”
While it’s legal for her to sell alcohol to Utah’s “extreme” drunk drivers, Bateman said she couldn’t morally justify doing so.
“If I had a child that was killed by a drunk driver, I’d be devastated and your family would be devastated,” she said. “I don’t knock the Utah rule, I really don’t.”
She added that Wyoming does “a really great job” enforcing drunk driving laws and flagging problem drivers.
“The bottom line is we don’t want to sell to someone who’s going to go out and hurt somebody,” Bateman said. “You’re always going to get some that fall through the cracks, but it’s not from not paying attention.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
