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Drunk Driving Laws Information
Most states in the U.S. designate a "per se" blood or breath
alcohol level as the threshold point where a person is presumed to be impaired.
The most common blood alcohol content (Blood Alcohol Content) "legal limit" in the United States
is 0.08 (i.e., 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood). Some states include a
lesser charge — often known as driving while impaired — at a Blood Alcohol
Content of, say, 0.05
or above but less than the legal limit for the more serious charge (only
Delaware still uses a more lax limit: 0.10). Prior to wider emphasis on drinking
and driving in the 1980s, standards of 0.12 were also in place in some states.
The legal limit for aircraft pilots in the U.S. is set at 0.04. Many states
observe a much stricter standard — known in some of them as "TCP," standing for
"Trace Constitutes Positive" — for drivers under the age of 21, which, since
1989, has been the uniform minimum purchase age for alcoholic beverages
throughout the nation (prior to that year about half of all U.S. states formerly
observed a lower drinking age, most commonly 18; the trend toward raising the
age commenced in the late 1970s, with much of the impetus for doing so provided
by a federal law passed in the mid-1980s mandating a reduced allocation of
federal highway funds to any state which refused to raise the age to 21).
Unlike DUI cases that involve alcohol, there is no "per se" or legal limit that
is employed for persons accused of driving under the influence of prescription
medication or illicit drugs. Instead, the key inquiry focuses on whether the
driver's faculties were impaired by the substance that was consumed. The
detection and successful prosecution of drivers impaired by prescription
medication or illegal drugs is therefore quite difficult. Similarly, although
urinalysis toxicology screens can detect the presence of such substances in the
driver's bloodstream, these analyses are unable to demonstrate that the
substance was actually causing impairment at the time of driving. In response to
these problems, several jurisdictions are currently considering legislation that
would establish "zero tolerance" laws for those drivers arrested for DUI and
found to have drugs or medication in their system. Additionally, technology is
being developed for the purpose of administering roadside or laboratory tests
that can detect the actual level of a controlled substance in an individual's
body.
Many jurisdictions require more serious penalties (i.e., jail time, larger
fines, longer DUI program, the installation of ignition interlock devices) in
cases where the driver's Blood Alcohol Content is over 0.20, or even 0.15 in some places. These
additional sanctions are an attempt to deter and punish the operation of a
vehicle at extremely high Blood Alcohol Content levels and the concomitant danger posed to the
safety of persons and property by heavily impaired drivers. In many cases, the
reason given for these additional sanctions is because an average person would
have passed out from that much alcohol. To be able to drive at that level, a
person has to have gotten drunk regularly for years, to increase his/her alcohol
tolerance, and therefore is likely to have driven drunk repeatedly. However,
since there is currently no standard test to measure alcohol tolerance,
proponents of high-Blood Alcohol Content additional penalties point to some studies that indicate
that high-Blood Alcohol Content offenders are more likely to be involved in a crash and more
likely to recidivate. Critics of such laws point out that, due to the wide
variation of alcohol tolerance, people with a high tolerance will suffer the
additional penalties, even though they may be much less impaired than people
with a low tolerance that were driving with a much lower Blood Alcohol Content.
Some U.S. states also increase the penalties for drunk driving (even to the
point of making it a felony) if certain other aggravating circumstances besides
a very high Blood Alcohol Content are present, such as if the drunk driver caused an accident
requiring the hospitalization of another person lasting greater than a specified
period of time (often 72 hours), in cases where an accident resulted in property
damage exceeding a certain amount (often $500), or where the driver has a prior
(and relatively recent) conviction for drunk driving. In addition, most states
observe administrative laws that further penalize people convicted of DUI,
typically enforced by the department that issues driver's licenses, usually
titled Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), or Department of Licensing. Also, in
many states, persons under 21 who purchase, or even attempt or conspire to
purchase, alcohol can have their driving privileges suspended (if they already
are licensed drivers) or delayed (if not) even if they were not caught actually
driving while intoxicated.
For more free legal information on Drunk Driving Laws, please use the
links below:
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