Arizona DUI Blood Alcohol Content Limit

Reader’s Question:

I have a cousin who has been charged with DUI here in Arizona. His blood alcohol content was actually below the legal limit of .08 percent. How can he be charged with DUI when the BAC was still within the legal limit?

Carlo

Phoenix, AZ

In Arizona, it is not illegal to consume alcohol before driving for people over the legal drinking age of 21. What is illegal is driving while impaired or with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08% or higher. Experts say that all people have some degree of impairment at .08% BAC.

When an adult driver (21 years or older) has a BAC of .05% or lower, he/she is presumed to be sober and not impaired under the state’s current DUI law.

However, prosecutors find it that by requesting a jury trial for such cases that the BAC was below .08%, an Arizona DUI conviction can still be secured if the jury will be convinced that there was any degree of impairment. This new strategy in prosecuting DUI charges in Arizona may be questionable and controversial, but is within Arizona DUI laws. Hence, the legal limit of .08% BAC really only applies when prosecutors say that it does and that should make anyone who has consumed any amount of alcohol before driving fairly nervous.