Drunk driving, drinking and driving, the act of operating a motor vehicle after having consumed alcoholic beverages can go by several names. Regardless of what you call it, however, it is illegal almost every jurisdictions within the United States. Specifically, these offenses are what's known officially as Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving Under the Influence (DUI).

DUI in the United States

The origins of drinking and driving laws go back to New York, who back in 1910 was the first state to adopt laws against driving under the influence of alcohol. Shortly thereafter, California and other states followed suit. Early laws were worded in such a way that they just prohibited driving while intoxicated, without setting a specific definition of what "intoxicated" was, at what level of inebriation a person was deemed "too drunk" to operate a vehicle. This suggests that this was simply left to the discretion of local law enforcement. It wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s when states started to adopt strict, more thorough DUI laws. This was mainly due to pressure from groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Most states in the United States designate a specific blood or breath alcohol level as the threshold point where a person is deemed to be too impaired to operate a vehicle. The most common legal blood alcohol content level in the United States is 0.08. Some states include a lesser charge at a blood alcohol content level that is less than the legal limit for the more serious charge. Most states have set a much stricter standard (known in some of them as "TCP," standing for "Trace Constitutes Positive," or "zero tolerance laws") for drivers under the age of 21.

In an attempt to severely punish those who show a complete lack of regard for public safety and the local drinking and driving laws, many jurisdictions actually have more serious penalties for drivers whose blood alcohol content is found to be over 0.15-0.20. In cases where a drunk driver has caused an accident resulting in property damage, and injury to another person, especially if they have prior DUI convictions, most states will increase the penalties beyond what they would have been for simply drinking and driving.

Field Sobriety Tests, DUI Arrest

If an officer suspects that a driver is driving under the influence, they will administer what is known as a field sobriety test. A field sobriety test is a preliminary test conducted by the officer on-scene to give the officer a better indication of the driver's condition. The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has scientifically determined that three field sobriety tests are statistically reliable in detecting impaired drivers. These three standardized tests are the "Walk and Turn" test, in which the law enforcement officer observes the person walking heel-to-toe on a straight like, the "One-leg Stand", in which the law enforcement officer observes the person standing and balancing (or attempting to) on one leg, and "Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus" in which the law enforcement officer observes the discrete movements of a person's eyes when tracking a stimulus across their field of vision. Other tests may include having the driver recite parts of the alphabet as a whole or portions of the alphabet.

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 blood alcohol content. In some jurisdictions, refusing to take a breathalyzer test is an offense in itself, often creating an automatic assumption of guilt under the law. Chemical tests are better at determining the driver's blood alcohol content than they are at estimating the level of impairment, but their accuracy is disputed by some. Tests can only determine the blood alcohol content at the time the test is taken, which sometimes can be either higher or lower than when the vehicle was actually operated..

If after all of these steps it is determined that the person was in fact operating a vehicle illegally, they will be placed into a holding cell, known as a "drunk tank" in most places, until a time when they are deemed sober enough to be released. Or they will be sent to jail to await a court hearing, or until they are bailed out. From there, it depends on the laws in the state in which they were arrested. Most states seem to have a mandatory 90 day suspension of license, accompanied by fines that can range from the hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some states do allow you to appeal your license suspension after a certain amount of time before the mandatory suspension is up (30 days, for example), while other states force you to wait until the sentenced time for you to get your license back.