Carolina Criminal Defense & DUI Lawyer UpdatesNorth Carolina treats a driver under 21 who has alcohol in the system very differently from an adult. For an adult, the question is impairment or a 0.08 reading. For anyone who has not turned 21, N.C.G.S. § 20-138.3 makes it a crime to drive on a highway or public vehicular area while consuming alcohol, or at any time while any previously consumed alcohol or controlled substance remains in the body. The State does not have to show impairment. The presence of alcohol is the offense.
People search for this as underage DUI or underage DWI, and the terms are worth sorting out before anything else. North Carolina’s formal name for the adult offense is impaired driving under N.C.G.S. § 20-138.1, and neither acronym of DUI nor DWI is referenced within statute. It does refer to driving “while under the influence of an impairing substance,” which many folks understand as “DUI.” The underage charge (N.C.G.S. § 20-138.3) is a separate offense with its own name, driving after consuming under 21, and it is not technically an impaired driving charge at all. That distinction is not academic. The two offenses are proven and punished in different ways, and the difference works in real cases.
If you are under 21 and charged with driving after consuming alcohol, you are likely facing what most people call “Underage DUI” pursuant to N.C.G.S. 20-138.3. The statute uses more formal language by describing the offense as driving by a person less than 21 years old after consuming alcohol or drugs. That formal title rarely appears in everyday conversation, which is why most people searching for information use terms like underage DUI, underage DWI, or provisional DWI.