Drunk Driving Blood Alcohol Threshold In Pennsylvania

In Hoenisch v. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Driver Licensing, 567 Pa. 89, 785 A.2d 969, 971 (2001), the Supreme Court, addressing whether North Carolina's 0.08% blood-alcohol threshold for being considered driving while intoxicated was substantially similar when Pennsylvania had a 0.10% blood alcohol threshold, held that its "per se" drunk driving offense of driving with a 0.08% blood- alcohol level was sufficiently similar because the "per se" threshold merely represented a legislative decision that such level of intoxication constituted conclusive evidence of an appreciable impairment, and state laws needed only to be of a substantially similar nature. Before Act 24 amended 75 Pa. C.S. 3731(a)(4)(i) and (a.1)(1)(i) (related to drunk driving), no offense occurred or penalty was imposed if a licensee was driving in Pennsylvania with a blood-alcohol level of less than .10%. Act 24, however, amended Section 3731, making it an offense to operate a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol level at 0.08% but less than 0.10%. Within an instant, Section 3731 was then replaced by 75 Pa. C.S. 3802(a).