DUI Charges and DUI Laws Losing Their Focus on Safety

If a driver is over the age of 21, it is not automatically “drunk driving” if they were to drink some alcohol and drive a car. The DUI penalties arise from laws that prohibit being under the influence of alcohol or having a blood alcohol level of .08% or more. Thus, it remains legal to drive if one is not under the influence of alcohol and has a legal blood alcohol level that is below .08%. However, it is important to understand that the .08% blood alcohol limit in the drunk driving laws does not require actual impairment so a driver could be subject to a drunk driving arrest even if they performed perfectly on field sobriety tests [California Vehicle Code § 23152(b)].

Drivers under 21 years old are subject to drunk driving charges if they exceed a blood alcohol legal limit of .05% and can lose their driving license for one year if they have even a .01% blood alcohol level [California Vehicle Code § 23136 and California Vehicle Code § 23140]. Furthermore, an under 21 year-old driver will remain subject to the adult DUI or “DWI” laws if they apply.

The powerful influences of politics and prohibition have lead to steadily increasing punishments tied to decreasing levels of blood-alcohol. In fact, Candice Lightner, the founder of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying that MADD has turned into a “neo–prohibitionist” organization that has “lost its focus on safety”. Commenting on the lowering of the criminal blood-alcohol threshold from .10% to .08% she said: “I thought the emphasis on .08% laws was not where the emphasis should have been placed. The majority of crashes occur with high blood alcohol levels, the .15%, .18% and .25% drinkers. Lowering the blood-alcohol concentration was not a solution to the alcohol problem.”

Lowering the blood alcohol legal limit for DUI charges catches more social drinkers who are arguably not under the influence and should not be subjected to a dui arrest. It diverts resources from the DUI arrests and DUI cases against the high blood-alcohol concentration drivers who cause the majority of crashes.

Call (831) 458-1011 To Contact Santa Cruz DUI Attorney J.P. Lavallee
To Discuss Your DUI Charges and Plan a DUI Defense.