The Illinois Department of Transportation and Illinois State Police joined members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists at the Illinois State Fair yesterday to remind motorists of the importance of driving sober, 20 years after Illinois’ implementation of its 0.08 DUI legislation. The law lowering Illinois’ DUI threshold to a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 took effect July 2nd, 1997, when Illinois became the 15th state to enact such a law. Today, all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have a legal limit of 0.08 or lower. Since the 0.08 law was enacted, alcohol-impaired motor vehicle crash fatalities in Illinois have dropped by about 43 percent. In 1996, the year before the law took effect, 534 people died in crashes involving at least one driver who was at or above the 0.08 level. In 2015, just more than 300 people died in alcohol-impaired crashes in Illinois.
