In the United States, the first drinking and driving laws were enacted in New York in 1910. Twenty-six years later in 1936, Dr. Rolla Harger, a professor of biochemistry and toxicology, patented a device called the Drunkometer, a balloon-like device that people would breathe into to determine whether they were impaired by alcohol.

In 1953, a former Indiana state police captain collaborated with Harger to invent the Breathalyzer, an easier-to-use device used by officers to establish if someone had too much to drink.

Public Awareness About Drunk Driving

Despite the invention of the Breathalyzer, the dangers of drinking and driving didn't fully catch on until the late 1970s and early 1980s.

By the 1980s, police officers nationwide began to crack down on drunk drivers and lawmakers began establishing tougher penalties.

In 1980, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was established when its founder, Candy Lightner, lost her 13-year-old daughter Cari after she was killed by a drunk driver as she walked home from a carnival.

The drunk driver who killed Cari had three previous DUI convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest that occurred two days earlier. Since its founding, MADD has been instrumental in reshaping the attitudes about drinking and driving, and has pushed for legislation that increases the penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

Today, if someone is convicted of drunk driving, they face driver's license suspension, jail, fines, community service, alcohol education, AA meetings, and attending a MAAD victim impact panel, among other penalties.

Some convicted drunk drivers are ordered to use an ignition interlock device, which is installed in their vehicles. With the IID, the driver is required to breathe into a sensor that is attached to the dashboard; the car won't start if there is alcohol above a certain limit in the driver's system.

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