Driving under the influence
driving a vehicle while the driver is under the influence of a drug that damages driving skill
Driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI) is the crime of driving, operating, or being in control of a vehicle while one is impaired from doing so safely by the effect of either alcohol (see drunk driving) or some other drug, whether recreational or prescription (see drug-impaired driving). Multiple other terms are used for the offense in various jurisdictions.
Terminology
The name of the offense varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and from legal to colloquial terminology. In various jurisdictions the offense is termed "driving under the influence" [of alcohol or other drugs] (DUI), "driving under the influence of intoxicants" (DUII), "driving while impaired" (DWI), "impaired driving", "driving while intoxicated" (DWI), "operating while intoxicated" (OWI), "operating under the influence" (OUI), "operating [a] vehicle under the influence" (OVI), "drunk in charge" (DIC), or "over the prescribed limit" (OPL) (in the UK). Alcohol-related DUI is referred to as "drunk driving", "drunken driving", or "drinking and driving" (US), or "drink-driving" (UK/Ireland/Australia). Cannabis-related DUI may be termed "driving high", and more generally drug-related DUI may be referred to as "drugged driving", "driving under the influence of drugs" (DUID), or "drug-impaired driving".
In the United States, the specific criminal offense is usually called driving under the influence, but states may use other names for the offense including "driving while intoxicated" (DWI), "operating while impaired" (OWI) or "operating while ability impaired", and "operating a vehicle under the influence" (OVI).
Definition
In typical usage of the terms DUI, DWI, OWI, and OVI, the offense consists of driving a vehicle while affected by alcohol or drugs. However,
in the majority of US states, the criminal offense may not involve actual driving of the vehicle but rather may broadly include operating or being physically in control of a motor vehicle while under the influence, even if the person charged is not in the act of driving. For example, individuals found in the driver's seat of a car while intoxicated and holding the car keys, even while parked, may be charged with DUI because they are in control of the vehicle.
“Driving under the influence” enters the record as driving a vehicle while the driver is under the influence of a drug that damages driving skill. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Driving, influence and driving can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q250062. The Library of Congress control number is sh85039787. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Driving under the influence” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.