Lauren Woodis

O’Hara

CAS 137H

12/18/18

A Change in America’s Favorite Pastime

When most people think of drunk drivers, they have an image in their mind of

some crazed, drunk person running into anything and everything in their path. This, for

the most part, is true, depending on how much alcohol one consumes. When a person

gets behind the wheel of a car under the influence of something, their motor skills in

their brain are greatly impaired plus their reaction time is significantly slower. This

means that a drunk person who ends up driving can do a lot of damage to themselves

as well as others when they get behind the wheel of a car. With all of this said, since the

1970’s, the number of people caught driving under the influence of alcohol has

decreased because of the more recent awareness of how much it impacts society and

families. This is not saying that the problem has diminished, because it is still a very real

problem, but the sheer number of drunk driving accidents have been on a pretty sharp

decline since the 1970’s. This is attributed much to the impact of organizations like RID

(Remove Intoxicated Drivers) and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) which help

spread awareness about the legal and emotional impacts that come with driving under

the influence of alcohol. Because of organizations like these, drunk driving has

decreased because there have been many laws passed that restrict driving under the
influence. These organizations worked hard to stop the continuation of increasing

drunk-driving accidents back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. They also helped make a

change, morally, where people now see drunk driving as something that should not

even be an option when considering how to get from one place to another. Another

example of something that has helped to decrease drunk driving in some cities has

been ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft.

History of the Breathalyzer

There were very few scientists who devoted their life’s work to figuring out an

effective way to see if a person is inebriated because back then, many people did not

see drunk driving as a problem. Many of the alcohol tests that were first invented were

much too inconvenient for the everyday traffic stop. In the 1920’s, a scientist named

Emil Bogen created a balloon-like contraption filled with sulphuric acid and potassium

dichromate. When blowing into this balloon-shaped test, the ions inside would change

from yellow to different colors on a spectrum of blue and green. They would then

compare that color to different colors, shown in an array of testing tubes. These tube’s

colors would represent different BAC percentages. As you can tell, this probably was

not the most quick or effective way for this procedure to occur during a traffic stop. The

few scientists who were researching methods to test blood alcohol percentages realized

this and kept looking for more effective ways to check someone’s blood alcohol content

level. W.D. McNally was another scientist who had the same idea as Dr. Bogan but his

contraption was smaller than Bogan’s. It was able to be held in the hand because it was

two small tubes stuck together which made it easier to transport and use in usual traffic
stops. After many prototypes and tests, in 1954, the modern breathalyzer was invented

by Robert F. Borkenstein. For two weeks, Borkenstein worked in his basement to make

a device that was meant for testing a sample of a breath. Many police departments

found this device more reliable than the balloon-like test and it soon became widely

accepted because of its simplicity and accuracy.

Atmosphere around Drunk Driving

Back in the 1960’s, the atmosphere around drunk driving was basically

non-existent. No one thought that it was a problem meaning that it was never addressed

or fixed. The only times the law enforcement officers would actually address alcohol use

in crashes was if the person was a middle-aged alcoholic that had already racked up a

few offenses by that point. In the 1960’s alone there were over 26,000 crashes that

involved intoxicated drivers and these numbers continued to stay high through most of

the 1970’s as well (Wutke). Back then, the percentage of all fatal car crashes that were

caused by drunk driving was 50% (Novak).​ This is an astonishingly high number,

especially because in our current times, that number has dwindled down to 30%. The

same scientist who created the modern breathalyzer, Borkenstein, was also credited

with “... a landmark study in 1964 known as the Grand Rapids Study which concluded

that there was a definitive link between increased BAC and car accidents,” (Novak).

People still had absolutely no idea that alcohol was the problem in all of these situations

even being shown that d​runk driving crashes were the leading cause of traffic deaths for

people ages 16 to 20 years old. This is surprising as well because many people would

consider that age group too young to drink even though the law prohibiting anyone
under 21 to drink didn’t get passed until 1984. ​People didn’t even think about staying

over at someone’s house or assigning someone to b​e the sober driver like we do now.

All people were concerned about was getting from point A to point B and it didn’t matter

how drunk they were.

There were no legal repercussions if you were caught behind the wheel

intoxicated and because of this, it was widely accepted that you would just drive your

car wherever you had to go, even if you were drunk. Normally in society, people would

believe the police officer’s testimony over a device that could tell their BAC (Novak).

The legal limit on how much alcohol could be in your system when operating a vehicle

was an insane .15% but most states didn’t even enforce this. Because of this, it was

completely acceptable to drive drunk. I mean after all, if you legally won’t get caught

why not do it right? Before 1984 with the passage of the over 21 drinking law, there

were no laws stating what you could and could not do behind the wheel of a car. Police

officers never pulled someone over if they were suspected of driving under the

influence. They just let it pass. Since very few people saw it as a problem, not many

people tried to fix it or give consequences to anyone caught doing it. Nine times out of

ten, if someone actually did get caught for it and their case went to trial, if they asked for

a jury trial they would be acquitted. This means that they would face no punishment for

killing another person. Many times, the situation would be seen as an “accident” which

constitutes no actual punishment because they “didn’t mean to take someone else’s

life”. Meanwhile, the families of the victims get no closure on what happened to their
loved one or loved ones. No one took responsibility in these cases and it was difficult for

the families to see that justice was never served.

Back in the 80’s under 15% of people reported using seat belts regularly. No one

used car seats, airbags weren’t necessary and seatbelts were more of a suggestion

than a safety requirement. If people were not wearing seatbelts and were hit by a drunk

driver, their chance of being killed was even higher. This directly correlates to why there

were even more deaths than what would have been if most people had been wearing

seatbelts. As of the passage of the seatbelt law in 1989, the law requires everyone in

the car to wear a seatbelt. This kept many people safe from being killed by a drunk

driver.

Young boys in the 80’s believed it was sort of their “rite of passage” to drive

drunk and see what happened. They thought of it as just a fun activity that they could do

with their friends. Many people began to take notice of this in the late 70’s and early

80’s. Particularly one woman, named Doris Aiken, noticed a case where a 22-year-old

man hit and killed two teenagers, Timothy and Karen Morris in 1977. This lit a fire in

Doris. She began to talk to women at her church in New York because she decided that

there needs to be some form of punishment in these cases and that there should be

some stigma around drunk driving in our country where it discourages anyone from

doing it (“Mission Statement”). Doris became the founder of RID (Remove Intoxicated

Drivers) in 1978 because she had already attracted a lot of attention and following in her

mission. She continued to spread her influence all over the state of New York by talking

with policymakers and pleading her case. Just two years later, in 1980, another group
who advocated for the end of drunk driving arose. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk

Driving) came into being after Candice Lightner’s 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was hit

and killed by a drunk driver while walking to a church carnival with her friends

(“History”). Only four days after this tragic event took place, Candice began to meet with

policymakers and government officials to try and change the California drunk driving

laws to give some form of punishment to anyone caught driving under the influence.

RID and MADD worked alongside each other to create an environment in our country

where people are discouraged to drive drunk.

Around the mid-80’s, MADD coined the phrase “designated driver” that we still

use today. This shows the impact that they have had and continue to have overtime in

our society. When people talk about one person staying sober to be able to drive a

group of people home, we typically refer to that person as the designated driver in that

group of people.

They still continue their same goal of advocating for sobriety, almost 50 years

later. Over time, they have helped pass laws and give awareness to their cause. Now

back to present day, all 50 states have fairly low blood alcohol content percents. These

are they types of laws that RID and MADD advocated and didn’t stop fighting for unless

they were passed. Cops will pull anyone over and test them for alcohol consumption if

they have even a tiny suspicion that the person has had a-few-too-many drinks. The

fines, consequences, and even jail time are enough to scare people into assigning a

person to be the sober driver to make sure that they are safe on the roads.
 Another example of something that has decreased drunk driving in certain places

has been ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft. If you are located in areas that have

access to these ride-shares, it makes it much easier to not have to get into a car and

drive after having a night of drinking because you can just call an Uber or Lyft and have

them take you home. In Portland, Oregon, there has been a 60 percent decrease in

drunk driving accidents because of Uber alone (Hawkins). This shows that ride-shares

can continue to also have a positive impact on the decrease in drunk driving.

When thinking of a person who gets caught driving while intoxicated, many

people think that the person made a terrible choice and many of us would never make

that choice ourselves. It is frowned upon in society now and this is what those

organizations fought so hard to change because it used to be completely acceptable

throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. People have a low tolerance when it comes to

hearing about someone that they know who drove drunk. People now know how much it

can impact a family if someone ends up getting hit or killed by someone who made the

choice to drink and drive. The organizations wanted a stigma around drunk driving so

that it discourages anyone from doing so and they were able to achieve this. Not many

people in our society now would even consider driving drunk but I bet if we lived back in

the 1980’s most of us probably would have by now. The outlook on drunk driving has

done a complete 180 degree shift from only 50 years ago and this is because of

organizations like RID and MADD.

Works Cited

Hawkins, Andrew J. “Does Uber Lead to Less Drunk Driving? It's Complicated.” ​The Verge​, The Verge, 4

Oct. 2017, www.theverge.com/2017/10/4/16418782/uber-drunk-driving-crashes-study-cities.

“History.” ​MADD​, ​www.madd.org/history/​.

“Mission Statement.” ​RID-USA, Inc​, 14 May 2017,

www.rid-usa.org/rid-usa-inc/2017/03/29/mission-statement/.

Novak, Matt. “Drunk Driving and The Pre-History of Breathalyzers.” ​Paleofuture​, Paleofuture, 5 Feb.

2016, paleofuture.gizmodo.com/drunk-driving-and-the-pre-history-of-breathalyzers-1474504117.

Wutke, Shelly. “Fighting Back: The History Of Drunk Driving Since The 1970's.” ​Guardian Ignition

Interlock,​ 20 Sept. 2016, guardianinterlock.com/blog/history-of-drunk-driving-1970/.