South Carolina DUI Laws: Penalties, Suspensions, and Interlock

South Carolina DUI penalties by offense escalate sharply with each conviction inside a ten-year lookback, and they climb again at higher blood alcohol concentrations. A first offense can be resolved with a $400 fine; a fourth is a felony carrying one to five years in prison. If impaired driving injures or kills someone, the charge jumps to felony DUI with up to 25 years behind bars.

Two things drive how harsh a given DUI sentence will be. The first is how many prior DUI or DUAC convictions sit on your record from the past ten years. The second is your BAC at the time of the offense: the statute sets a base penalty, then adds a higher tier for a BAC of 0.10% to 0.159% and a higher tier still for 0.16% and above.¹

First Offense

A first DUI carries a $400 fine or 48 hours to 30 days in jail. The court can let you perform 48 hours of community service instead of serving the jail minimum, but cannot force that trade on you. BAC enhancements raise the penalty:¹

BAC 0.10% to 0.159%: $500 fine or 72 hours to 30 days, with community service available for the 72-hour minimum.
BAC 0.16% or higher: $1,000 fine or 30 to 90 days, with community service available for the 30-day minimum.

Every DUI conviction, first offense included, requires enrollment in the Alcohol and Drug Safety Action Program (ADSAP), and your license stays suspended until you finish it.²

Second Offense

A second DUI within ten years means mandatory jail. The base range is a $2,100 to $5,100 fine and five days to one year in jail. The court cannot suspend the fine below $1,100. BAC enhancement raises the stakes:

BAC 0.10% to 0.159%: $2,500 to $5,500 fine and 30 days to two years in jail.
BAC 0.16% or higher: higher still, with a longer minimum jail term.

Community service is no longer an option for the jail minimum starting at the second offense.¹

Third Offense

A third DUI carries a $3,800 to $6,300 fine and 60 days to three years in jail at the base level. The BAC-enhanced tiers climb quickly:¹

BAC 0.10% to 0.159%: $5,000 to $7,500 fine and 90 days to four years.
BAC 0.16% or higher: $7,500 to $10,000 fine and six months to five years.

Fourth or Subsequent Offense

A fourth DUI is punished by one to five years in prison. The statute sets no separate fine at the base level, only incarceration. BAC enhancement still applies:¹

BAC 0.10% to 0.159%: two to six years.
BAC 0.16% or higher: three to seven years.

Because the possible sentence passes one year, a fourth offense is a felony under South Carolina law. A felony DUI conviction at this level cannot be expunged and stays on your record for life.

Felony DUI for Injury or Death

South Carolina has a separate felony DUI charge for impaired driving that hurts or kills someone. The offense sits outside the standard first-through-fourth tiers and applies even on what would otherwise be a first DUI.

Causing great bodily injury carries a mandatory fine of $5,100 to $10,100 and 30 days to 15 years in prison. “Great bodily injury” means an injury that creates a substantial risk of death, causes serious permanent disfigurement, or results in the extended loss of function of a body part or organ. Causing a death raises the mandatory fine to $10,100 to $25,100 and the prison term to one to 25 years. No part of either sentence can be suspended or served as probation.³

License Suspension That Runs Alongside the Criminal Case

The criminal penalty is not the only hit to your license. The DMV imposes an administrative license suspension (ALS) on its own track, triggered either by refusing a chemical test or by registering a BAC of 0.15% or higher. The length depends on prior offenses in the preceding ten years:⁴

First offense: six months for refusal, one month for high BAC.
Second offense: nine months for refusal, two months for high BAC.
Third offense: twelve months for refusal, three months for high BAC.
Fourth or subsequent: fifteen months for refusal, four months for high BAC.

You have 30 days from the Notice of Suspension to request a contested case hearing before the Office of Motor Vehicle Hearings. Miss that window and the suspension runs its full course. You can also pay $100 for a temporary alcohol license to keep driving while the hearing is pending.⁴

Ignition Interlock at Every Level

South Carolina requires an ignition interlock device (IID) at every DUI offense level. The device prevents the car from starting if it detects alcohol on your breath, and the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services runs the point system that tracks compliance.⁵ Required periods are:⁶

First offense: six months.
Second offense: two years.
Third offense: three years, extended to four if the third falls within five years of the first.
Fourth or subsequent offense: lifetime.

Enrolling in the IID program and getting an ignition interlock restricted license ends the license suspension at each level. You pay installation and monthly monitoring fees yourself, and tampering or failed breath samples can extend the required period or revoke your license.

Other Mandatory Costs

The fine is only part of what a DUI costs. Every conviction requires ADSAP completion before license reinstatement, with program fees capped by statute at $500 for education, $2,000 for treatment, and $2,500 total.⁷ Skip ADSAP and your license stays suspended indefinitely.

You will also need to file an SR-22 with the DMV, a certificate your insurance company submits to prove you carry the required liability coverage. It must stay in place for three years. A lapse triggers another license suspension, and premiums typically rise substantially while the filing is on your record. Add the $100 temporary alcohol or route-restricted license fee, IID installation and monthly monitoring costs, and DMV reinstatement fees once your suspension ends.

Different Thresholds for Commercial and Underage Drivers

The 0.08% limit and the penalty tiers above apply to most drivers, but two groups are held to lower thresholds. A commercial driver who tests at 0.04% or higher is disqualified from operating a commercial vehicle for at least one year on a first violation, whether the driver was in a commercial rig or a personal car at the time.⁸ Drivers under 21 face a zero-tolerance rule: any BAC of 0.02% or higher triggers an automatic DMV license suspension with no requirement that the driver appear impaired.⁹

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-5-2930 – Operating Motor Vehicle While Under Influence of Alcohol or Drugs
2
South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services. DUI Services
3
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-5-2945 – Offense of Felony Driving Under the Influence
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-5-2951 – Suspension of License for Refusal to Submit to Testing or for Certain Level of Alcohol Concentration
5
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-5-2941 – Ignition Interlock Device
6
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-5-2990 – Suspension of License
7
South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services. ADSAP Brochure
8
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-1-2110 – Disqualification From Driving Commercial Motor Vehicle
9
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 56-1-286 – Suspension of License or Permit or Denial of Issuance of License or Permit to Persons Under the Age of Twenty-One Who Drive Motor Vehicles With Certain Amount of Alcohol Concentration