LANDER - Traffic laws on the Wind River Indian Reservation have been updated for the first time since 1963, and the new rules make way for a serious crackdown on drunken driving.

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes have adopted new laws that are in some ways stricter than Wyoming state statutes on drunken driving.

The new legal limit for drivers on the Wind River Indian Reservation is a blood-alcohol level of .05, tribal officials said, compared to .08 for the state.

The new laws also address repeat offenders, unlike the old rules. Once convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, that conviction now triggers a "zero tolerance" policy for the future, where any detectable level of alcohol in the blood is another offense, said Leslie Shakespeare, chairman of the joint Shoshone-Arapaho Traffic Code Revision Committee.

Prior to updating the reservation's traffic code, the 45-year-old drunken driving laws were quite lax by today's standards: They required those convicted of driving with a blood-alcohol content of .10 or higher to pay a $250 fine and a $10 court fee.

Convicted first-time offenders on the reservation will now be fined $500 to $1,000. Repeat offenders will now be fined $750 to $2000 and serve at least 30 days to a year in jail, if convicted.

Imprisonment can be suspended if the individual completes a court-approved alcohol and drug safety education or treatment program, Shakespeare said.

The state of Wyoming revised its legal limit for drivers' blood-alcohol content down to .08 six years ago, following the deaths of eight University of Wyoming cross country runners.

All eight were killed when a drunken driver in a pickup truck hit their vehicle head-on as they were traveling back to Laramie from Fort Collins, Colo.

Like Wyoming, most states now have a blood-alcohol content limit of .08.

The Shoshone and Arapaho tribes decided to make the limit lower on the Wind River Reservation for a couple reasons, Shakespeare said.

"One is a sovereignty issue," he said. "If tribal members are going to write laws for the tribes and tribal memberships, our laws shouldn't reflect anything else but what we feel we need. Secondly, we looked at DUI laws not only nationally, but internationally, and a lot of countries across the world have a standard below .08. In fact, the U.S. has one of the highest average limits in the world; most countries are lower."

Countries such as Canada, Argentina, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and South Africa also have set the BAC limit for drivers at .05, he said, while others have even lower limits, and some developed countries have zero tolerance for alcohol in the blood.

Other amendments to the reservation's traffic code include new regulations for all-terrain vehicles on roads and a seatbelt law for drivers, where police can now pull drivers over who are not buckled up, Shakespeare said.

Ivan Posey, chairman of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, was one of the primary sponsors and driving forces behind the passage of the new laws, Shakespeare said.

Posey told the Star-Tribune that drunken driving is one of he main causes of premature death on the Wind River Reservation, and it poses a greater threat to tribal members, statistically, than just about anything else, including drugs.

Not only do people die inside their automobiles, but many pedestrians have also been killed by drunken drivers over the years, Posey said.

"Public safety was the first and foremost reason we changed these laws," he said. "There was really no deterrent, or very strong deterrent, to keep people from putting themselves and others in danger."

Posey said he hopes the state of Wyoming follows the tribes' lead on this issue and revises its blood-alcohol content limit down to .05, as well.

While the new laws are important for the reservation, they're not sufficient on their own, he said. The next step will be for the tribes to put in place highway safety officers to enforce the laws, Posey said

Drunken driving convictions have been on the rise throughout the state of Wyoming in recent years, and many legislators prior to the November election spoke of the importance of once again revising the Cowboy State's drunken driving rules, especially to crack down on repeat offenders.

Drunken driving convictions in Wyoming are increasing by an average of about 150 per year, the Star-Tribune reported in September, putting the state on track for 4,538 convictions in 2008.

More than 3,100 people were convicted of drunken driving for the first time in 2007, up from 2,842 in 2006.

Repeat offenders are also on the rise. Nearly 980 people received a second drunken driving conviction in 2007, up from 883 in 2006. The number of third-time drunken driving convictions rose to 278 in 2007, up from 244 in 2006.

Lorrie Pozarik is the facilitator for Gov. Dave Freudenthal's council on impaired driving. She said one of the council's recommendations for the legislature is to revise the laws so they more effectively target the people that are likely to repeat offend.

"High BAC multiple offenders cause the most carnage on the highways, statistically," Pozarik said. "The governor's council has recommended graduated charging and graduated sanctions, so the charges and sanctions match the relative risk to the rest of us on the roadway. Somebody more likely to cause a crash is also more likely to reoffend."

The governor's council would like to see Wyoming's DUI statutes get a "comprehensive review," Pozarik said, but so far the process has been "piecemeal."

At least one lawmaker, Republican Rep. Keith Gingery of Jackson, is interested in sponsoring a comprehensive rewrite of the state's DUI laws, she said, and is currently working on that project.

Contact reporter Chris Merrill at (307) 267-6722 or chris.merrill@trib.com