Almost everyone knows that it’s against the law to drink and drive in the U.S., according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Every state across the country has some sort of law against driving while intoxicated, including Washington, D.C., and all U.S. territories.
Many people are even familiar with the campaigns that helped to raise awareness about the effects of drinking and driving, including the ones sponsored by organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
But these laws weren’t always easy to enforce, since it was hard to prove that someone was intoxicated before the development of widely accepted blood alcohol concentration (BAC) tests, like the Breathalyzer. Even once the Breathalyzer was created, it took a while for its use to be accepted by the general public.
There’s even a funny video making the rounds online showing how some people initially reacted to the idea of the Breathalyzer. It’s astonishing to watch people’s responses as they say that the idea of testing their BAC levels was a bad idea. Even stranger, others even defend their drinking and driving. Needless to say, this video reveals just how far society has gone when it comes to drinking and driving.
People React to the New Technology
@the.social.hub1 #1960s #vintage #footage ♬ original sound – The Social Hub
The black-and-white video shared by @the.social.hub on TikTok shows how people felt about the initial rollout of the test. In one clip, a man calls testing drivers “diabolical,” since only drivers get tested and not pedestrians.
Another woman talked about how she frequently drives while drunk and doesn’t feel the need to test herself before getting behind the wheel. “So you’re going to drive home tonight, and you don’t feel the need to change your drinking habits at all,” a person asks off screen.
“Certainly not,” the woman responds.
One Man Took the Test on Camera
Another person was stopped as they were leaving a pub. The gentleman was about to get into his car to drive home, and the cameraman and a reporter asked if he’d be willing to try the Breathalyzer. The man breathed into the contraption. “I’m afraid you’re not sober,” the reporter said as he checked the reading.
The man admitted to having three pints, slurring his words as he explained that he thought he was still capable of driving himself home. “You don’t sound capable,” the tester said.
Commenters Couldn’t Get Over the Responses
A lot of people in the comments cracked jokes about the video, with one person writing, “It’ll never catch on.”
Another person recalled how people have always been hesitant to adopt changes. “You should see how upset they were when you created a seatbelt law,” they wrote.
“There are people out there still with this attitude,” another person wrote.
Even with nationwide laws against drunk driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration still reports that thousands of people are killed by drunk drivers each year. In fact, a 2025 report says that there were 11,904 people killed by alcohol-impaired-driving crashes in 2024, which works out to one person dying every 44 minutes. “These deaths were all preventable,” the report adds.
While the TikTok clip is humorous because of how outdated the attitudes of the people in the video are, the current statistics prove that society may not be as far removed from those days as we think.