A U.S. safety group suggests cutting the legal limit for driving while intoxicated from a .08 blood alcohol level to .05.

The new level means one alcoholic drink for a woman under 120 lbs. and two drinks for a 160-lbs. man.

The National Transportation Safety Board says 100 other countries have adopted the standard and have significantly reduced highway deaths.

In Europe, drunken driving deaths were reduced by more than half within 10 years after the standard dropped.

NTSB officials acknowledged the new threshold means the safest bet for anyone who has had one or two drinks is to not drive at all.

A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, four ounces of wine, or one ounce of 80-proof alcohol.

The NTSB says blood alcohol levels as low as .01 can impair driving performance.

Drunken driving claims the lives of about a third of the more than 30,000 people killed each year on U.S highways.

The numbers have remained the same for the last 15 years.

"Alcohol-impaired deaths are not accidents, they are crimes. They can and should be prevented. The tools exist. What is needed is the will," said NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman.

Others say states and industries related to alcohol might fight the new limit.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and AAA declined Tuesday to endorse NTSB's call for a .05 threshold.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets national safety policy, also stopped short of the recommendation.

The NTSB also suggested other measures to reduce traffic fatalities.

They also suggested states adopt measures to ensure more widespread use of use of devices which require a driver to breathe into a tube, like a breathalyzers, before the ignition starts.

The board has previously recommended states mandate all convicted drunken drivers install the devices in their vehicles as a condition to resume driving.

Currently, 17 states and two California counties require all convicted drivers use the devices.

The board has previously called on the safety administration and the auto industry to step up their research into technology that can detect whether a driver has elevated blood alcohol without the driver taking any other action.

Drivers with elevated levels would be unable to start their cars.

Studies show more than 4 million people a year in the U.S. drive while intoxicated.

Half of those stopped avoid detection.

The number of drunk driving deaths dropped in the 1980s and 1990s when the minimum drinking age became 21 and the blood alcohol limit went to .08.

Drunk driving kills 10,000 people a year, down from 21,000 in 1982.

The NTSB's recommendations come 25 years after one of the nation's deadliest drunk driving accidents.

In Carrollton, Ky., a drunk driver drove his pickup on the wrong side of a highway, collided with a bus and killed 27 people, including 24 children.