DUI Laws – Past and Present

There were 9,878 traffic fatalities involving drunk driving in 2011, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA.) While even one death is too many, that number has decreased dramatically over the last 30 years. In 1982, there were 21,113 such fatalities. This decrease is due, in no small part, to the efforts to change both legislation and public opinion by groups like MADD and SADD.

Drawing on the advances in drunk driving legislation in the 1980s, which raised the drinking age in the United States and lowered the legal blood alcohol count (BAC) level from .15% to .10% and then .08%, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended in 2013 that the BAC level be lowered further to .05%. Several states, including California and New York, have imposed an even lower BAC level (.04%) for those with commercial driving licenses.

DUI Enforcement Today

Today, law enforcement officers have an arsenal of laws and devices to help them keep drunk drivers off of U.S. roads and highways. While every state has slightly different laws, most include license suspension (often with work or school privileges) for a first offense. Others, including Ohio and Wisconsin, require DUI offenders with work driving permits to use special, easily-identifiable plates. Still others, including California, make it mandatory for such drivers to install an ignition interlock device that prevents a car from starting if the driver's BAC is too high. Drunk drivers in some states, including Ohio and California, risk having their cars impounded and forfeited for multiple DUI offenses.

The Future of DUI Enforcement

Ignition interlock devices promise to play a greater role in DUI enforcement in the future. Some countries, including Belgium, require all cars be equipped with such devices. Other countries, including Japan, are considering such legislation. There is also talk about making DUI a federal crime in the United States and thus eliminating all of the differences among different state laws. Whatever the outcome of that proposal, it's fairly safe to say that DUI laws in the United States will continue to get more strict.

This is the fourth and last post of a four-part series on the history of DUI laws in the United States and their enforcement. Over the last weeks, we talked about early DUI laws, DUI laws in the post-World War II era. We hope you'll take a minute to review our other three posts about how DUI laws in the United States have evolved over the past decades.

The History of DUI Laws in the United States – 1960 to 1990

Driving while intoxicated is not a new problem. In fact, it's practically as old as the automobile itself. In this blog, we've been looking at the history of DUI laws and enforcement over the past weeks, beginning with the first such U.S. laws in 1907. The decades between 1960 and 1990 brought substantial changes both in how law enforcement deals with DUI offenses and also in public opinion.

While alcohol-related traffic accidents still account for more than 40 percent of all traffic fatalities in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the number of traffic deaths has been reduced dramatically over the past 50 years.

MADD and DUI Laws

This shift is, in large part, contributable to one California mother's passion and loss. Candy Lightner started Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) in 1980 after her 13-year-old was struck and killed by a drunk driver with previous DUI convictions while she was walking home from school. Lightner and MADD worked diligently to change America's DUI laws and raise public opinion about the seriousness of drinking and driving. MADD is largely responsible for the lowering of the legal blood alcohol limit to .10% from .15% and a few years later to .08%. (Today's limit is .05%.) The organization also pushed for "zero tolerance" legislation for drivers under the age of 21. Such laws made it illegal for young drivers to operate a vehicle with a .01% or greater blood alcohol level.

MADD was also successful in lobbying Congress to raise the national drinking age, resulting in the minimum drinking age being raised from 18 to 21 years in 1984. Largely as a result of MADD's activity, 700 new drunk driving laws were passed in the United States between 1980 and 1985.

Student against drunk driving (SADD), formed in 1981, was another force in changing how young people look at drinking and driving. Today, this peer-driven group has 10,000 chapters in middle schools, high schools and colleges throughout the United States.

Drunk driving began to be taken seriously during the 1980s, both by citizens and by law enforcement. That work continued into the 1990s and beyond. In our next post, we'll look at how DUI laws changed from 1990 to the present day.

This is the third post of a four-part series on the history of DUI laws in the United States and their enforcement. Last time, we talked about DUI laws in the post World War II era. We hope you'll visit again over the next few weeks as we discuss how DUI laws in the United States have evolved over the past decades.

MADD Pushes Connecticut Legislature on IID

Ignition interlock devices (IIDs) have been required for all convicted DUI offenders in Connecticut since 2011, even for first offenders. However, first-time offenders who chose to complete a first-offender diversion program are not mentioned in the laws regarding first-time DUI offenders. Connecticut SB 465 makes it clear that IIDs are still required for first-time offenders who choose to enter diversion programs.

In Florida, not all counties have diversion programs for first offenders. Only Miami, West Palm Beach, The Florida Keys, Gainesville and Orlando have such programs. Most, if not all of them, require an ignition interlock device for a specified periods as a condition of the program, though without uniformity between jurisdictions. Oddly enough, only first offenders who are actually convicted of DUI (whether by plea or trial) are required to have an IID ONLY if their BrAC was over a .149 or they had a minor in the car at the time of the arrest.

Interestingly, MADD pushed long and hard for the Connecticut Legislature to close the loophole in their laws, which allowed diversionary DUI cases to avoid the IID. Yet, on the MADD website's FAQ page the following appears:

"Does MADD advocate for ignition interlocks in all cars? 

No. MADD advocates requiring ignition interlocks only for convicted drunk drivers with an illegal blood alcohol concentration of .08 or greater."

Back on Track Miami Diversion Program Changes

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office met with Mothers Against Drunk Driving representatives recently to discuss the Back on Track Program, a DUI diversion program for first offenders in Miami. As usually happens when political forces are brought to bear, the MADD Mothers got their way and forced prosecutors to beef up the conditions of the program.

Program participants in Tier One (under .15 BAC) will be required to install an ignition interlock device on their car for 90 days. Tier Two participants will be required to install the device for 180 days.

The program was designed to focus on first time DUI offenders, with no aggravating circumstances surrounding their cases, such as minors in the car, accidents or very high breath/blood test results. It's creation followed the path of successful programs Alachua County (Gainesville) and Orange County (Orlando), the focus of which was to educate first-time offenders, sting their pocketbooks, but not saddle them with a DUI conviction for life—all very reasonable pursuits.

Enter MADD, who tried to force additional program conditions that demonize first offenders. First, they proposed adding a SCRAM alcohol monitoring bracelet for defined time periods. Then they tried adding a "no drink order" during the entire period of program participation, 6-12 months.

Zero tolerance has long been the goal of MADD, starting from the time when they changed their slogan from "Don't Drive Drunk" to "Don't Drink and Drive."

"We believe the best practice is not to drink and drive and that means zero. If that's neo-prohibitionist, then we are." – Chuck Hurley, Former MADD CEO.

"MADD's stance is that ONE drink is too many." – Kelly Larkin, Executive Director of MADD Southern Arizona.

"While a lot of attention is paid to the serious problem of the repeat offender we don't want to overlook the casual drinker." – Karolyn Nunnalee, Former MADD President in USA TODAY.

MADD has pushed for Ignition Interlock Devices for all people convicted of DUI and, at last count, has been successful in doing so in 20 states, most recently Maine and Tennessee. In Florida, the IID is required after a first DUI conviction, if the BrAC is .15 or greater or a minor is in the car.

Fortunately, reasonable minds prevailed at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.