You may have seen this on a TV sitcom: But, in reality…is it possible (in some states) to get a DUI for just having the keys in the ignition while intoxicated, but not operating the vehicle?
Certainly in Canada, yes. It’s the offence of “care and control”.
I believe there is actual published precedent to this effect in NJ. The rationale being that the person obviously intended to drive.
I know someone who tried that excuse while pulled over… on the side of the high way.
Didn’t work.
Happened in Akron, Ohio to a friend of mine about 10 years ago. I had to go bail him out.
You can also get in trouble for sleeping it off in your car. While laws vary, if you absolutely must sleep in your car intoxicated you should, if possible, make sure you do it in the back seat and put the keys somewhere such that you could argue you did not have easy access to them. You might even consider leaving the keys at the bar or whatever you were drinking at (after unlocking your car so you can get in it…) so that you can say you don’t have keys to the vehicle in your possession.
Even still, in lots of places if a police officer sees someone sleeping it off in their car they can and will hassle you–in the grand scheme of things paying for a cheap hotel room will save you a lot in time and aggravation.
I have never gotten a DUI but I had an officer try his absolute best to come up with something to make it so on one occasion. He couldn’t do it but I only won by sleeping in the passenger’s side of my own car and he forced me to produce the keys which I had hidden beside a boulder way beyond the car just to cover for such a scenario. He told me that he was trying to come up with a way to get me on a DUI pulling any trick he could and not following those steps would have led to one. In the end, he couldn’t come up with anything because I was cooperative despite his best efforts but I did have to have someone come pick me up. Thankfully, those days are long behind me.
Both theoretically and in practice for some real-life examples, you don’t have to be be driving a motor vehicle to get a DUI. You can get one sitting in your car. You can get one on a bicycle, a horse, or a lawnmower. You also don’t have to be over the legal limit either. A .08 BAL is evidence of impairment on its own but it isn’t strictly necessary. Behavioral impairment at a lower level can lead to a DUI arrest and conviction. To take this to absurd levels, you could theoretically get a DUI after hopping in a horse buggy after two beers if you are a real lightweight although I don’t think that would really happen. The point of the law is to keep impaired drivers of any sort off the street but you don’t have to be driving to get a DUI.
Depends on the state. NJ law specifically says “motor vehicle”. So a bicycle or horse won’t do. It could happen on a lawn mower but I have never heard of it happening.
While I have no idea about the specifics of the case, there is an incident that I know is included in educational videos given out to High Schools in this area.
The story basically goes that a college student drives to a bar in his car with 3-4 friends. Student gets wasted beyond belief to such a degree that he passes out, his friends roll him into the cargo area of the vehicle (SUV of some sort) and one of his friends drives the car home. They are pulled over and the driver is well over the legal limit. The driver of the vehicle and the vehicle owner passed out in the back are both convicted of DUI. I know that a lot of high school and college students scratch their heads and wonder why that would be since the vehicle owner wasn’t driving and arguably was not even in a condition to decide whether or not his friends should drive. Actually being unconscious you could even say that his friends were technically driving his car without his permission or consent.
Nonetheless, the car was his responsibility and thus he was still viewed as responsible under the laws here.
If I might ask, why would the police -want- to make it difficult for you to sleep it off in your car? Isn’t that a good thing?
I got charged with DUI. And I was “simply” walking along a road.
It’s not about safety. It’s about consequences for behavior society deems unacceptable. Drinking outside of the home is bad, therefore, you should be punished.
Happened to an aquaintence of mine once, he was sitting in his car with the keys in the ignition at a bar (he worked as a bouncer at the time). I don’t remember why he said he had the keys in the ignition but wasn’t planning to drive though.
Get drunk and drive a lawnmower down a downtown street…swerve a lot. I would think that DUI would be one of the charges.
But I seriously doubt they’d mess with you that if you’re on your property cutting your back yard drunk.
I don’t think that’s it at all. It’s because the people who are honestly sleeping it off in their car are far outnumbered by the people who are “just sleeping it off in the car, honest.” You can argue that why should I be inconvenienced because of other people’s irresponsibility, but I’m pretty sure (ie, no, I don’t have a cite) the numbers show that this practice reduces the number of drunks on the road driving into other people.
I disagree. No cite either.
How do the police distinguish between person A who decided to sleep off his drunk in the driver’s seat and person B who passed out in the driver’s seat?
I saw a guy on a bicycle get pulled over in front of my house. the cops gave him a DUI. It seemed wrong to me because he was trying to do the right thing. I wondered how it went in court.
Based on whether he’s parked outside the bar or not.
I think part of it might be that the number of people who quite genuinely do sleep it off is vanishingly small.
I’d be willling to place money on it, that if you are drunk enough to be sleeping in your car, you won’t be sober enough to drive when you wake up.
The more common scenario is probably something like:
a) roll out of bar at 3 am
b) sleep in car till 6 am when you feel “awake and sober”
c) Drive home with a barely lower BAC than when you left bar