The document outlines the evolution of blood alcohol content (BAC) limits and DUI laws in the United States, tracing their development from the early 20th century to present day. Initially, regulations were vague and penalties were rarely enforced, but significant changes began in the 1970s and 80s, culminating in a federal mandate for states to set BAC limits at .08% by 2003. Currently, strict enforcement of DUI laws persists, reflecting a significant reduction in alcohol-related traffic fatalities over the decades.

1. History of BAC Limits and DWI Laws in
the United States
For anyone born in the United States after the year 2000, they’ve never
lived in a time where the BAC limits in the United States were over .08%
in any of the 50 states, and they absolutely wouldn’t remember when
the legal drinking age was 18 as opposed to 21.
The history of drunk driving, BAC limits and DWI laws in the United
States is long and has increased in strictness by a large margin
throughout the last century.
Let’s go back to the turn of the 20th
century. In 1910, New York was the
first state to pass any law regulating driving while intoxicated, with the
state of California following soon after. However, neither of these first
laws included any quantifiable level or number that would lead to a
conviction, and were more commonly dealt with by means of a fine. A
loss of a license or driving privileges during this time where few people
could afford to have a personal car was highly uncommon. Other states
between the two coasts followed suite and also passed laws addressing
drinking and driving, but those laws were also generalized and ill-
defined.

2. After the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920’s throughout the United
States, it wasn’t until the 1930’s that things started to heat up on the
DWI and drunk driving law front.
In 1936 an initial version of the Breathalyzer was invented by Robert F.
Borkenstein in collaboration with Indiana University toxicology professor
Rolla N. Harger, called the “Drunkometer”. The Drunkometer was a
contraption similar to a balloon that people would breathe into and,
according to The Washington Post, “took advantage of the fact that
alcohol consumed by a person enters the bloodstream, goes through
the lungs and is exhaled. The concentration of alcohol in deep lung air
is related to the level of alcohol in the blood.”
Soon after the Drunkometer invention, in 1938, both the National Safety
Council and the American Medical Association put together a task force
that began to research and develop criteria to determine the relation of
alcohol and car accidents. Upon the conclusion of their studies, both
groups suggested a standard and specific blood alcohol content level of
.15% that would inform the max BAC level allowed for drivers who were
pulled over for intoxicated driving.
Some 15 years later, Robert F. Borkenstein invented the Breathalyzer in
1958 that we still use today. It uses chemical oxidation and photometry
(the science of the measurement of light in terms of its perceived
brightness to the human eye) to determine alcohol levels in an
individual by measuring alcohol vapors in the breath.
Despite the invention of the Breathalyzer and the research done by the
National Safety Council and the American Medical Association, the
1960s were a pretty lax time socially regarding drunk or impaired
driving.
During this time laws had harsh penalties and fines, but the likelihood of
them actually being applied was slim. The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration worked during this time to show graphic photos of
the dangers of drunk driving to sway legislators into tightening the
reigns, and some states did lower their allowed blood alcohol content
levels to .12% or .10%, but it wasn’t until the 1970’s that the federal and
state governments alike really committed to stricter laws.
One of these laws include the switch of the legal drinking age from 18
years of age to 21 years of age, in addition to many states passing “per
se” DUI laws beginning in 1972 which made it so the state did not need
to prove that alcohol affected the convicted driver’s ability to drive a car,
but rather only needed to prove that the driver had a BAC over the limit
while operating a vehicle. These per se laws still apply today in all 50

3. US states, though they now apply to a lower BAC than they did nearly
50 years ago.
In the late 70’s and early 80’s there was a greater push in drunk driving
laws after the formation of RID (Remove Intoxicated Drivers) in 1978
that was the first ever anti-drunk driving organization in the US. This
organization was followed by the well-known Mothers Against Drunk
Driving (MADD) organization that began in 1980 and was pioneered by
Candice Lightner and Cindy Lamb who both had children die from
accidents related to being hit by drunk drivers.
During this time, DUI laws changed in response nationwide with the
legal BAC limit receiving a decrease from .15% to .10% in the 1980s,
and Utah being the first state to lower its legal BAC limit to .08%, the
limit that is held to be the standard in present day.
The 90’s brought about stricter laws involving drunk driving offense,
most notably seen in “Zero Tolerance Laws” that focused on underage
drinking and driving, meaning minors who had BAC over “0” would be
automatically charged with a DUI, even if they were under the legal limit
for adults.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, almost
one-third of all deaths of minors aged between 15 and 20 years old are
related to alcohol.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a bill that required all states to
lower their legal blood alcohol content levels to operate a motor vehicle
to .08% by a deadline of October 2003, or they would lose all their
federal highway construction funds. By October 1st
of 2003, it’s reported
that 45 of the 50 states had passed laws to lower to legal BAC to .08%,
with the remaining 5 states falling in line by July of 2004.
That brings us to present day, where .08% is still the maximum BAC
allowed to operate a motor vehicle, and DWI convictions are seriously
persecuted and can result in jail time, fines, and loss of license.
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “in the
mid 1970s, alcohol was a factor in over 60% of traffic fatalities. Traffic
crashes were the leading cause of alcohol-related deaths and two-thirds
of traffic deaths among persons aged 16 to 20 involved alcohol.”

4. They go on to say that “Since the early 1980s, alcohol-related traffic
deaths per population have been cut in half with the greatest
proportional declines among persons 16-20 years old” and, “Today
alcohol is involved in 37% of all traffic deaths among persons aged 16
to 20.”
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