Illinois DUI Laws: A Stagger Down Memory Lane

Perhaps most Chicagoans aren't all that interested in the finer points of drunk driving laws until they end up on the wrong side of the law. And usually by that point, they've learned everything they need to know from an Illinois DUI lawyer. There's nothing quite like personal experience in providing a real-world education.

But for anyone interested in learning more, the Secretary of State's pithy 2009 Illinois DUI Fact Book contains a wealth of information, including the history of the state's drunk driving laws.

Drunk driving is one of those things that nearly everyone is against (even those who end up drinking and driving themselves), particularly politicians, which means that once a DUI law is in place it can only get more and more strict.

Just imagine for a moment a candidate for public office declaring his or her intention to raise the legal BAC limit.

Take a look at the first entry in the DUI handbook's history timeline, dated Jan. 1, 1958: "Established .15 [percent] as the illegal BAC limit." So you could legally cruise the Chicago streets in your pink Cadillac, Buddy Holly crooning from the radio, with a BAC of nearly double the current limit of .08 percent 50 years ago.

Let's assume research wasn't as sophisticated at the time (even if experience proved otherwise) but a BAC of between 0.13 and 0.15, according to B.R.A.D. (Be Responsible About Drinking), causes the following impairments:

Gross motor impairment and lack of physical control. Blurred vision and major loss of balance. Euphoria is reduced and dysphoria (anxiety, restlessness) is beginning to appear. Judgment and perception are severely impaired.

Doesn't quite sound like safe conditions for driving, does it? State lawmakers agreed and lowered the legal limit to 0.10 percent nine years later. But then the limit was lowered once again 30 years later in 1997 to the current limit of 0.08 percent.