That might be because there were few to no penalties, no one lost a driver’s license, and crashes were considered ‘accidents’ that no one really meant to cause. Things stayed mostly stagnant in drunken driving law throughout most of the 1960s. How dare a woman tell men what to do? Upon arraignment, the defendant would ask for a jury trial, where they were almost always acquitted. Analyzing the history is helpful to understand why NH DUI laws exist in their current form. By October 1, 2003, forty-five states had passed .08% blood alcohol content laws. Had she even asked her husband for his opinion? These per se laws are still in effect today in all 50 states. The driver had three previous DUI convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days earlier. Because of her work, perhaps over a million people have avoided life-changing injuries at the hands – wheels – of a drunk driver. Thankfully organizations like RID and MADD are still out there working to end drunk driving, and with people like Aiken at the helm, they won’t stop until they do. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration worked to show legislators statistics and graphic photos depicting the dangers of drunk driving. For more information on our Cookie Policy, including an opt-out, please visit. Virtually everyone alive today has always lived knowing there were laws against driving under the influence of other substances. It was not always so. The machine measured the alcohol vapors in the breath, and it would show the level of alcohol in blood. The police only had powers to stop you if you were driving dangerously. Of course, NH DUI laws mirror this trend, and a .08% BAC may lead to a conviction. Then in 1980, Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving after her 13-year-old daughter was killed on her way home from a school carnival by a drunk driver. Over on our site about Alpha, the joint studios of ABC and ATV in Birmingham, it's launch night for ITV in the Midlands, On this day in 1946, BBC radio began serialising one of the most devastating essays ever written, 60 men battle the elements to bring BBCtv to the north of England in 1951. At the end of the 1960’s there were over 25,000 drunk driving crashes in the United States, and as the 70’s began it seemed to be widely accepted that someone would just get behind the wheel drunk. I can't speak for the 50s or 60s, but by mid 70s Germany had REALLY cracked down on drunk driving. Barbara Castle was Harold Wilson’s Minister of Transport and was one of the most effective people to ever hold that position. Although the laws had harsh penalties, they were rarely applied. If you kept to the speed limit and didn't swerve about too m But in reality rules and regulation regarding travel after using drugs or alcohol developed piecemeal in different ways across the country. Amazingly, people were still debating in the 1960s whether drunk driving really posed a risk on the nation’s roads. Until 1967, it was perfectly legal to drive whilst drunk in the UK. But at the time the breathalyser was introduced, Castle became a hate figure. The Breathalyzer used chemical oxidation and photometry to determine alcohol concentration. What makes ITV worth watching is regional programmes from your local station, says the IBA in 1976, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), Your Arrowsmith Holidays questions answered, Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium, “Holme Moss is the wildest place I’ve ever worked”. we grew up in the sixties and loved every minute of it! Shouldn’t he tell her not to be so stupid, to sit down and shut up? She also introduced the Road Traffic Act 1967 that made being drunk in charge of a vehicle not only a crime but also, as time passed, a social issue, where offenders found themselves ostracised by friends and fired by their bosses for such disgusting behaviour. In 1953, Robert Borkenstein invented the Breathalyzer. During the 1960s, drunk driving was considered a “folk crime” and almost a rite of passage for young men. With RID focusing its efforts in New York and MADD branching out all across the USA, real change began.