The Basics Of DWI State Laws
Each state in the U.S. passes different laws to deal with people who drive while intoxicated (DWI). Most states use a blood alcohol test or breath alcohol analysis test to find out how much alcohol has been ingested. Most states specify a maximum blood alcohol content (BAC) legal limit of 0.08. Any higher reading is considered by the state to be DWI.
A few states that have charge drivers that are under the 0.08 BAC limit but test higher than 0.05. This BAC level results in a "Driving While Impaired" charge. Driving While Impaired is a lesser charge than DWI. Pilots and commercial vehicle operators have a legal maximum blood alcohol content of 0.04.
During the 1980s, DWI laws became much stricter as more attention was brought to the problem of drunk driving. Before that, some states had the legal driving Blood Alcohol Content as high as 0.12.
Since 1989, when 21 years became the legal U.S. drinking age, some states have had a stricter DWI law for those under 21. As an example, minors who have any measurable alcohol at all in their system are considered to be legally drunk.
In most states, DWI charges increase in severity if the BAC is 0.15 - 0.20. The reason for this is that most people with a blood alcohol levels in this range are subject to blackouts and unconsciousness.
Furthermore, people with blood alcohol levels this high will have judgment, vision, and reaction time that are seriously impaired. These laws were put into place to try to prevent extremely intoxicated people from driving.
Some people that feel that the more serious DWI laws should not be enforced on those with a high BAC. They argue that such people must have been drinking for years and therefore have developed a high tolerance to alcohol.
These critics of the harsher DWI penalties claim that a person with a high alcohol tolerance is much less dangerous than someone with a lower BAC that has little alcohol tolerance. At this time, no objective test is available to measure a person's tolerance to alcohol.
DWI laws and fees get decidedly more serious when more than $500 worth of property damage has occurred. The drunk driver could even be charged with a felony if a victim must seek hospital treatment within 72 hours of the DWI accident. Some states have instituted an escalating scale of penalties based on the individual situations.
For persons repeatedly charged with DWI, a misdemeanor DWI can be escalated to a felony charge.
This article is ©2006 by Doug Smith, who provides many free and valuable articles on DWI Arrests. Learn more about DWI arrests, DWI attorneys, your DWI rights, the dangers of drinking and driving, and much more DWI information at http://DWI.FindCarsForHire.com. This article may be freely reprinted as long as this copyright notice remains intact, the article is unchanged, and all hyperlinks remain active and clickable.
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