DUI History: DUI LAWS 1910-1950

From "The DUI App," available from iTunes

Although Great Britain enacted the first known law making "drinking and driving" illegal in 1872, the United States would not make this activity unlawful for another 38 years.  However, prior to this enactment in the United States drinking and driving was in the news.  The first reported news article regarding drinking and driving in the United States appeared in 1904 and the following years such activity appeared in newspapers and periodicals more frequently.  Even still it was not until 1910 that New York became the first state to enact drinking and driving laws.  To give some perspective, the Model T Ford was introduced in 1908 and by the time the first driving under the influence law was introduced, nearly 12,000 of Ford's Model T had been sold.  Interestingly, Henry Ford did have an opinion about drinking and driving and his opinion was clear, to wit:  "booze had to go when modern industry and the motor came in." 

Following the enactment of New York State's driving under the influence law was enacted other states quickly followed, including California in 1911.  Once the law put in place a system whereby a driver could be prosecuted for drunk driving there needed to be a way to measure the driver's level of intoxication.  And thus the race was on to invent a machine to accomplish this task.  Naturally, prior to the invention of such a machine there was no presumptive level of impairment because there was no way to validate such a level.  http://www.borkensteincourse.org

The study of human breath is not a 20^th century phenomenom.  As far back as 1774 French chemist Antoine Lavoisier conducted studies regarding respiration, but his contribution to the field of breath testing involves his invention, the "gasometer."  This invention was the first instrument to make relatively accurate measurements of respiration gases.

In 1803 William Henry formulated a chemical equation that was later known as "Henry's Law" and has had significant impact on the measurement of human breath. 

Following Henry's impact and more than fifty years after Lavoisier's gasometer design, British and Australian physician John Hutchinson adapted the design and invented the first "spirometer," which was used for measuring the volume of a patient's breath.

In 1874, British physician Francis Anstie went one further and actually trapped human breath and applied colorimetric analysis to study alcohol in the body. 

In 1927 Dr. Emil Bogen reported measuring blood alcohol concentration (BAC) by analyzing a person's breath. And, the breath testing device was nearly reality.

Also in 1927, Dr. Gorsky a police surgeon in Britain testified at an early "DUI" trial regarding the "drunkenness" of the defendant.  The defendant was convicted largely based on the evidence provided by Dr. Gorsky.   

The first "practical" breath testing machine was invented by Professor Rolla N. Harger in 1938.  Called the "Drunk-o-meter" it was intended to be used by police and thereafter as evidence in courts of law. 

Also in 1938 The National Safety Council's Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs (COAD) (formally known as the Committee on Tests for Intoxication) collaborated with the American Medical Association's Committee to Study Problems of Motor Vehicle Accidents to establish standards for defining the phrase "under the influence."  COAD based these standards, in large part, on Holcomb's research. 

In 1939, a year after Harger's "Drunk-o-meter" invention became reality, his home state of Indiana became the first state in America to establish a presumptive alcohol impairment level of 0.15%.   The enactment of "presumptive levels" shifted the focus in DUI investigations and trials from simply using officer observations to more "scientific" chemical testing.

The 1940s saw more development of the breath test machinery, with both the "Intoximeter" and "Alcometer" introduced in 1941.  In 1944 the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances incorporated presumptive alcohol concentrations in the Chemical Tests Section of the Uniform Vehicle Code.  In 1948, the CAOD collaborated with "Licensed Beverage Industries, Inc.," to fund a research project at Michigan State College to study breath-testing methods.  This study examined the three most prevalent breath-alcohol testing instruments of the time, the Drunkometer, Intoximeter and Alcometer. Each of these instruments utilized wet chemical methods that analyzed breath samples based on chemical interactions between the alcohol molecules and a reagent.  The study, effectively the first of its kind, determined that the three instruments could achieve results that were in "close agreement" with direct blood alcohol results.  At the time these findings were perceived very favorably by the law enforcement community

Immediately following World War II, the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances held the first national highway safety conference.  The government had become concerned with the dramatic increase in highway accidents involving injuries and deaths, due in large part to the higher number of vehicles on the road following World War II.  An outcrop of the conference and subsequent studies was a recommendation setting a standard level for blood alcohol impairment at 0.15 %.  This number would then become a "target" that states would aspire to in determining when a driver was presumptably impaired.  This particular BAC level was also recommended by the American Medical Association (AMA) as an "accepted" level for impairment based on the AMA's own independent research.

For information on your Washington State DUI please contact our Snohomish County DUI attorneys, Whatcom County DUI attorneys, King County DUI attorneys, Whatcom Island County DUI attorneys, Island County DUI attorneys, or Skagit County DUI attorneys at 425-493-1115 or check out our website at http://www.washdui.com