“Impaired to the slightest degree”

Arizona and other states it is widely known that the legal limit for driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol is over a .08 blood or breath alcohol level.  But what is not commonly talked about is that a person can get a DUI even if their Blood/Breath Alcohol level is less than a .08.  Yes, if your BAC is less than a .08 you can get a DUI.

A.R.S. 12-1381(a)(1) says that if a person drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicating substance and is “impaired to the slightest degree” than you are guilty of a DUI.

53  years ago, my husband a then 17 year old was traveling a quiet country road with three friends. The group of boys had picked up my husband Richard who spent the summer at the family  cabin in Valparaiso Indiana.  The boys were driving home to Hinsdale IL excited to begin their senior year of high school the next day .  Only minutes on the road, little did they know what lie ahead of them.

That same evening, two men went on a drinking binge, , they got into their automobile and began to wreck havoc along the quiet country road, causing numerous accidents along their path, while driving on the wrong side of the road they ended their lives when they collided with the boys in the Greenbriar Van Slamming head on the men were killed instantly, the boys were left a mass of tangled steel and debris.

The police arrived almost instantly, they had been alerted earlier  to the pending doom and were looking for the men trying to avert a disaster ..

The boys were all unconscious, and were laid at the side of the road, their bodies so mangled they were thought to be dead, by some miracle all the boys survived, after long months in the hospital they healed and went on to live long healthy lives.

Don’t  Drive Drunk