STOCKHOLM, Sweden,None — At least one third of Orange County's deadly crashes this year involved someone under the influence despite all the laws against it. But some victims' families found a place where the law works and they want lawmakers to try it here.
WFTV sent reporter Eric Rasmussen to Sweden to check out some of the toughest DUI laws in the world.
Police think only about one or two out of every 1,000 drivers on the roads in Sweden is drunk. There's no shortage of alcohol, but people who drink aren't driving and the ones who do, even just a little, stand a good chance of getting caught.
Jason Russo's family thinks Sweden's laws, including daily DUI checkpoints, an extremely low legal limit, and the threat of severe punishment, could have stopped the kind of repeat drunk driver who still had his license when he killed the Iraq war hero on his way home from work in Orange County this year.
"The minute the country does not provide safety for the people who live here, they've failed," Jill Gelber told WFTV.
Gelber and her husband are among a growing number of people pushing the U.S. and Florida to take a closer look at how Sweden is going after drunk drivers.
WFTV joined Stockholm police at a DUI checkpoint at the center of the city; every driver is required to blow into a breathalyzer.
"We do a couple of hundred for an hour. It's no problem," explained Bengt Svensson, National Swedish Police Board.
Swedish officers carried out more than 2.5 million breath tests last year. The blood alcohol limit is .02, four times lower than Florida's .08.
"Immediately, over 0.05, you, maybe, one month, two month in prison," Svensson said.
Lower level offenders can still lose their license for a year, twice as long as the max punishment in the U.S. Anything over .10 is considered aggravated drunk driving and can lead to as much as two years in prison.
Swedish police say they have hard numbers to back up their tough laws. Sweden's rate of fatal crashes involving alcohol is less than half that of Florida.