A Florida man was arrested for drunk driving even though he wasn’t driving. I’m Amy E. Feldman.
Last week, a Florida deputy came upon a pickup truck with its engine running, the headlights and brake lights on, and the driver asleep inside the car with his foot on the brake and an unopened can of beer in the cup holder. When the deputy woke him, the man refused to roll down the window but instead opened the beer and tried to drink it. The deputy broke his window, put the truck in park, and while he couldn’t arrest him for being a moron, which isn’t technically a crime, he did arrest him for drunk driving, even though the man wasn’t driving when the deputy found him.
That’s because in most states, you don’t have to be driving to be convicted of drunk driving, as long as you are operating or in physical control of a vehicle while drunk if you’re close enough to be able to set the car in motion, which would present a danger to the public. Not to mention a danger to your window—oh, and your life—if you make dumb decisions while you’re at it.
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