Whether you have had one drink or twenty drinks, it is against the law to drive impaired. Once upon a time it was referred to as DWI which is driving while intoxicated (drunk) now the law is DUI which is driving while under the influence. It may only take one drink to be under the “influence” if you get behind the wheel.

There are many staggering statistics about drunk driving that reveal the dangers of driving impaired:

• Every day, almost 29 people in the United States die in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes.
• Someone is injured in a drunk driving incident every 120 seconds. 
• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a total of 37,133 people died in traffic crashes in 2017, approximately 10,874 people were killed in drunk driving crashes that involved an individual with a blood alcohol level above .08 (which is the legal limit).

Arizona is one of the strictest when it comes to cracking down on drinking and driving. The Zero Tolerance DUI Law states that even if your blood alcohol level registers below .08, you can be arrested if a police officer believes you are impaired regardless if your blood alcohol level registers below .08 percent. This law is very clear in its name: Arizona will not put up with anyone who is behind the wheel with alcohol in their system. There are different penalties for the different levels of severity of your DUI.

Just to give you some examples, here is the penalty for a first offense, standard DUI:

• Jail for 10 days
• $1,500 in fines, not including jail costs and a $80 monitoring fee
• Screening and counseling
• 90-day license suspension or 1-year revocation
• Interlock device on your vehicle for 12 months 

Arizona’s drunk driving laws are here to stay so in order to avoid all the fines and penalties that come along with driving under the influence, it is best to stay off the roads even if you have just had one drink.

The best option is to utilize a dedicated designated driver to be in charge of getting you home, or use a ride sharing service such as Uber or Lyft. The ease of scheduling and the low cost compared to a DUI make this one of the best options. We recommend downloading and setting up the app before going out, if you haven’t already.

Due to Arizona’s strict laws and the penalties that result, it has led to Arizona being one of the top states for prevention, and has led to a lower number of drunk driving offenses. According to the WalletHub analysis, Arizona ranked first for having the strictest DUI laws and second for DUI prevention. Arizona has sobriety checkpoints, mandatory treatment, and vehicle impounding and ignition interlock device installations (the individual has to be sober for the vehicle to start), which continue to allow it to be near the top of the list for DUI prevention.

For more information regarding drunk driving, visit https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving

About the author: Dan Deary is president of Capitol Collision Repair, one of the largest, independent body shops in Phoenix, now celebrating more than 32 years in business.

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