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What About This New Drunk Driving Law?
Starting now for alleged violations occurring on or after September 30, 2003, the prohibited concentration level on first and second offenses is lowered from .10 to .08 (grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath or grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood). The prohibited alcohol concentration level for a third offense is already .08. The prohibited alcohol concentration for fourth and subsequent offenses remains at .02. The law is not retroactive. That is, you cannot be charged with a prohibited alcohol concentration violation between .08 and .099 for an offense that occurred before September 30, 2003.
However, the legislature also did something else extremely interesting. For those individuals charged and also convicted of a prohibited alcohol concentration(PAC) first offense with a breath or blood result between .08 and less than .10, the law eliminated the improvement surcharge (currently $350.00), 24% penalty assessment and a variety of other court costs. Also, for a PAC-1 with a test result between .08 and .10 there is no mandatory alcohol assessment/counseling. Further, if that individual has no further convictions for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant (OWI) or implied consent (refusal) violations for ten years thereafter, the original PAC conviction would be erased from the record. These provisions only apply to first offenses between .08 and less than .10 and not second or subsequent. Interestingly enough, the law only provides that any of this happens for a conviction of the PAC law. Therefore, it would appear that if an individual is convicted for OWI rather than PAC, none of this would apply.