Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Tennessee is applauding the actions of the Tennessee General Assembly for passing a tougher DUI law to go into effect July 1. HB190/SB457 lowers the standard of the Blood Alcohol Content of a DUI offender that causes death or serious injury to .15 to qualify for additional “aggravated” penalties. The current standard is .20.
Beginning July 1 st , someone who is guilty of vehicular homicide who also had a .15 BAC or higher and a prior DUI/BUI would have their penalty upgraded to a Class A felony.
Similarly, someone guilty of vehicular assault, meaning they caused serious injury, who also had a .15 BAC or higher and a prior DUI/BUI would have their penalty upgraded from a Class D felony to a Class C.
The change comes at a time when Tennessee had the 10 th most annual drunk driving deaths in 2023, according to the latest Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data from the US Department of Transportation. The 371 lives lost was 28 percent higher than in 2019.
“This change makes a lot of sense and will give many victims a better sense of justice,” said Vanessa Goodman, MADD Tennessee Program Manager. “It shouldn’t take a BAC of
.20 for there to be additional penalties. Even a .15 BAC is dangerous beyond words to be out on the road. We hope this will be a deterrent to such reckless behavior.”
The change comes after years of advocacy from MADD, notably the victims and survivors who have seen the devastation of impaired driving first-hand.
“We are very grateful to Representative Ron Gant and Senator Paul Rose,” said Norris Skelley, long-time MADD volunteer and policy advocate in honor of the loss of his
brother-in-law. “When we told them there were ways our DUI laws could provide more justice to victims, they took action. Now there are even more reasons for someone to never make that decision to get behind the wheel impaired.”
Nationally, 12,429 people died in drunk driving crashes in 2023. In 2014, U.S. drunk driving deaths had finally gone below 10,000, but large increases in recent years erased that progress, the group noted.