Drunk Driving // Current

Minnesota Supreme Court Rules DUI Possible in Inoperable Vehicle

The Supreme Court of Minnesota on Thursday upheld the drunk driving conviction of a man caught asleep behind the wheel of a vehicle that would not start. At 11:30pm on June 11, 2007, police found Daryl Fleck sleeping in his own legally parked car in his apartment complex parking lot. The vehicle's engine was cold to the touch, indicating it had not been driven recently. The keys were in the center console, not the ignition. Fleck admitted to having consumed around a dozen beers that night. Officers at the scene arrested him, and his blood alcohol level was found to be .18. A few weeks after Fleck's vehicle was impounded, a police officer tested the vehicle using the keys found in the car's center console.

"Although the key turned in the ignition, the vehicle would not start," Justice Alan C. Page explained in the unanimous decision.

Laws covering driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) have evolved over the years to cover the situations where police find a parked, but recently driven, vehicle with a drunk behind the wheel. In the 1992 case Minnesota v. Starfield, the court found a drunk passenger sitting in a vehicle stuck in a ditch guilty of DUI, but not because it could prove she really was the one who drove and caused the accident. Instead, the court ruled that "towing assistance [was] likely available" creating the theoretical possibility that the immobile vehicle could "easily" be made mobile. These defendants have been charged under an expanded definition that suggests having "dominion and control" with the mere potential to drive is a crime. Intending to sleep off a night of drinking treated as the same crime as attempting to drive home under this legal theory which does not take motive into account.

As Fleck was an unsympathetic figure with multiple DUI convictions in his past, prosecutors had no problem convincing a jury to convict. The court took up Fleck's case to expand the precedent to cover the case of mere presence in an undriven -- and perhaps undrivable -- car into the definition of drunk driving. The court relied on Fleck's drunken claim that his car was operable to set aside the physical evidence to the contrary.

"Although the facts of this case are not those of the typical physical control case in which a jury can infer that the defendant was in physical control because he drove the vehicle to where it came to rest, a jury could reasonably find that Fleck, having been found intoxicated, alone, and sleeping behind the wheel of his own vehicle with the keys in the vehicle's console, was in a position to exercise dominion or control over the vehicle and that he could, without too much difficulty, make the vehicle a source of danger," Page wrote. "Based on the totality of the circumstances, the facts in the record, and the legitimate inferences drawn from them, we hold that a jury could reasonably conclude that Fleck was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of being in physical control of a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and with an alcohol concentration of .08 or more."

Fleck's three prior convictions elevated his sentence to a felony for which the trial judge imposed four years in prison

http://thenewspaper.com/news/30/3030.aspThe Supreme Court of Minnesota on Thursday upheld the drunk driving conviction of a... more

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Drunk driving could be 'safer' than texting while driving, study says

Everyone knows the law, though few of us abide. But the studies are rolling in and they're saying texting while driving is not only illegal -- it’s dangerous.

Sure, you might object to the evidence: there have been few conclusive empirical studies about the dangersof texting while behind the wheel, but if it’s important enough for Obama to convene a national summit about it, perhaps it’s worthy of a closer look.

Texting, also known as SMS (short message service), refers to the 160-character messages sent and received on modern mobile phones.

A Car and Driver study released in June, although not the most academic (because of its very small sample size), nonetheless revealed results that will make you doubt your ability to text and drive carefully at the same time.

The study measured the reaction times of two different male test subjects (ages 22 and 37) texting while driving and again while intoxicated, to compare the two. When a red light mounted on the windshield at eye level lit up (like a car’s brake lights), the driver was to hit the brakes. A data logger recorded the test data. (See the article here for more of the study’s technical methods.)

The 22-year-old subject’s slowest reactions times driving at 35 mph while reading a text caused him to travel an extra 21 feet (more than a car length) beyond his baseline reaction time before hitting the brakes, and an extra 16 feet while writing a text. While reading a text and driving at 70 mph, the same subject traveled about 31 extra feet while typing. In comparison, he traveled half that -- 15 extra feet -- while drunk.

The 37-year-old subject wracked up far worse scores. Even during his bestreaction time while reading or texting, the subject traveled an extra 90 feet beyond his baseline performance. In the worst case, he went 319 feet farther down the road. That's almost the length of a regulation football field.

Now, this is not merely a case of ageism -- the study is really just trying to show that no matter what age, even while using a phone familiar to them, and with no traffic, road signals, or pedestrians, drivers are seriously distracted when they are typing out a tiny 160-character message.

You might feel safe knowing that you only text when fully stopped at red lights. But in a Jan. 1 article about new California laws that issue fines to drivers who text while driving, CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader reminded us that you can still get a citation even if your car isn’t moving.

The Car and Driver study also kindly reminds us that the results are by no means advocating drunk driving. “[The intoxicated results] only look better because the texting results are so horrendously bad.”

Let’s not wait until the accidents caused by texting while driving increase and force us to see that this phenomenon is as dangerous and unacceptable as driving while under the influence.

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TAGS

tagged w/ Drunk Driving

Minnesota Supreme Court Rules DUI Possible in Inoperable Vehicle

Broken Teens

Man charged with snow blowing while drunk - UPI.com

Kelli Laine Lewis. Zero Justice

Teenage Drunk Driving Causes & Effects

Man calls 911 to say marijuana missing

Man dressed as breathalyser arrested fro drink-driving

Woman calls 911 to report herself as drunk driver

Watch who your kids drive with

Bar patrons almost hit by their own car

Man Pleads Guilty to DWI in Motorized La-Z-Boy

Reality TV became too real...

16 Months For Driving Your Rolls-Royce Through A Store

More police officers drawing blood to prove DUI

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DUI IMPOUND 8-16-09 (picture #1)

Drunk driving could be 'safer' than texting while driving, study says

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