Drunk driving is a serious offence.

Drunk driving or drinking and driving is the act of operating a motor vehicle after having consumed alcohol (ethanol) or other drugs, to the degree that mental and motor skills are impaired. It is illegal in most jurisdictions within the U.S.. http://www. ... Alcoholic beverages are drinks containing ethanol. ... Ethyl alcohol, also known as ethanol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, colorless chemical compound, one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic beverages. ... Many drugs are provided in tablet form. ... The mind is the term most commonly used to describe the higher functions of the human brain, particularly those of which humans are subjectively conscious, such as personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. ... A motor skill is a skill required for proper usage of skeletal muscles. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about: United States Wikinews has news related to this article: United States United States government Official website of the United States government - Gateway to governmental sites White House - Official site of the US President Senate. ...

The specific criminal offence is usually called driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the influence [of alcohol or other drugs] (DUI). Such laws may also apply to boating or piloting aircraft. Boating is the activity of traveling by boat. ...

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 17,419 people died in 2002 in alcohol-related collisions, representing 41 percent of total traffic deaths in the United States. Over 500,000 people were injured in alcohol-related accidents in the US in 2001. Alcohol-related is defined to include any driver, passenger or pedestrian involved in a fatal crash who has any trace of alcohol or suspicion of alcohol usage. According to the NHTSA, no other country uses these criteria in their statistical computations. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, often pronounced nit-suh) is a U.S. Government agency, part of the Department of Transportation, responsible for setting safety standards and verifying compliance by automobile manufacturers. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A percentage is a way of expressing a proportion, a ratio or a fraction as a whole number, by using 100 as the denominator. ... In many parts of the world traffic is generally organized, flowing in lanes of travel for a particular direction, with interchanges, traffic signals, or signage at intersectons to facilitate the orderly and timely flow of traffic. ... Death is either the cessation of life in a living organism or the state of the organism after that event. ... Injury is damage or harm caused to the structure or function of the body caused by an outside agent or force, which may be physical or chemical. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Laws

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 (BAC) "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 BAC 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). Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are present in the blood and help carry oxygen to the rest of the cells in the body Blood is a circulating tissue composed of fluid plasma and cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets). ... Breath is one of the few bodily functions which can be controlled both consciously and unconsciously. ... Look up Threshold in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A threshold is a fixed location or value where an abrupt change is observed. ... Blood alcohol content (or blood alcohol concentration), often abbreviated BAC, is the concentration of alcohol in blood, measured, by volume, as a percentage. ... State nickname: The First State Other U.S. States Capital Dover Largest city Wilmington Governor Ruth Ann Minner Official languages None Area 6,452 km² (49th)  - Land 5,068 km²  - Water 1,387 km² (21. ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...

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.

The drunk driver of this car was left disfigured, blind, and permanently brain damaged.

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 BAC 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 BAC 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-BAC additional penalties point to some studies that indicate that high-BAC 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 BAC. reprint of this image is granted by http://www. ... reprint of this image is granted by http://www. ... An ignition interlock is a breathalyzer installed into a car that will not allow the car to start until given a breath sample that has a lower Breath Alcohol Content(BAC) than the ignition interlock has programmed into it. ...

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 BAC 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. A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a very serious crime; misdemeanors are considered to be less serious. ... Administrative law is the body of law that arises from the activities of administrative agencies of government. ... The Department of Motor Vehicles is a government department which handles matters related to automobiles, such as issuing license plates and drivers licenses. ...

History of drunk driving laws

The first jurisdiction in the United States of America to adopt laws against drunk driving was New York in 1910, with California and others following. Early laws simply prohibited driving while intoxicated, with no specific definition of what level of inebriation qualified. State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ...

In the US, most of the laws and penalties were greatly enhanced starting in the late 1970s, and through the 1990s, largely due to pressure from groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD). These organizations — MADD in particular — are also widely cited for getting the drinking age raised to 21 in those states where it had once been lower. Also during this era, enforcement of drunk driving laws became a priority for police for the first time. This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1970s. ... Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ... Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, is one of Americas most popular non-profit organizations. ... Students Against Drunk Driving is an after-school program aimed at keeping students from drinking alcoholic beverages and then driving, and also keeping them off drugs. ...

In some areas of the country, including New York City, it's part of police procedure to impound cars of arrested drunk drivers. The offenders forfeit the cars permanently if they are convicted.

Sample timeline of a typical DUI arrest

The following is what can happen when a law enforcement officer has a reason to suspect a driver is intoxicated. Some possible reasons are erratic driving, poor coordination, and/or the presence of the smell of alcohol.

Field sobriety test

The officer will administer one or more field sobriety tests (FSTs). Some common FSTs include having the driver:

• try to walk in a straight line, heel-to-toe.
• tip his or her head back with eyes closed and try to touch the tip of the nose with the index finger.
• stand on one foot.
• reciting all or part of the alphabet.

FSTs are better at determining the level of impairment than they are at estimating the driver's BAC. The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. ... TOE describes those whom have won a Tony Award, an Oscar Award, and an Emmy Award. ... An eye is an organ that detects light. ... Human nose Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration. ... Fingers of the human left hand The finger is any of the digits of the hand in humans and other species such as the great apes. ... Enlarge to view legend Right feet of three siblings The foot is a biological structure found in many animals that is used for locomotion. ... An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters — basic written symbols — each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. ...

The (US) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has scientifically determined that three FSTs are statistically reliable in detecting impaired drivers. These three "standardized" tests are the "Walk and Turn" test, the "One-leg Stand" and "Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus" in which a law enforcement officer observes the discrete movements of a person's eyes when tracking a stimulus across their field of vision.

Chemical test

If arrested, the driver is brought to the police station, and given one or more chemical tests: breath, urine, and/or blood. Breath test results are usually available immediately and are sometimes given before the actual arrest takes place; urine and blood samples are sent to a lab to determine the BAC. In some jurisdictions, refusing to take a breathalyzer test is an offense in itself, often creating an automatic assumption of guilt under the law. Chemistry (in Greek: χημεία) is the science of matter and its interactions with energy and itself (see physics, biology). ... Biochemistry laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... A breathalyzer (or breathalyser) is a device containing a spectrophotometer that is used by police forces to detect the amount of alcohol in ones breath during traffic stops. ...

Chemical tests are better at determining the driver's BAC than they are at estimating the level of impairment, but their accuracy is disputed by some (see blood alcohol test assumptions). In any case, tests can only determine the BAC at the time the test is taken, which sometimes can be higher than when the vehicle was actually operated, in the case of a driver who drank a large volume immediately before driving. Critique of blood alcohol readings One of the greatest sources of error in blood alcohol testing is the misconception that an individual being tested is perfectly average in certain physiological traits. ...

Next step

If it is determined that the person is not legally intoxicated, they might be released without any charges. However, many jurisdictions have charges which don't require a particular BAC, and tests for some drugs (such as GHB) will not show up in a test designed for alcohol. Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (4-hydroxybutanoic acid, C4H8O3) is both a drug and a naturally occurring compound found in the mammalian brain, where it might function as a neurotransmitter. ...

Most of the time, the driver will either be kept in a holding cell (the "drunk tank") until they are deemed sober enough to be released, or sent to jail to wait for their first court hearing (or until they can get bailed out). This article is about courts of law. ... Traditionally, bail is some form of property which is deposited or pledged to a court in order to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail (skipping bail is also illegal). ...

See also

• Drink driving (for issues that are not U.S.-specific)