When most people think of “drunk driving” they think of someone who gets behind the wheel of their car or truck and drives off. While this is a pretty good description of the overwhelming majority of drunk driving incidents, what surprises a lot of people is that you don’t have to be behind the wheel of a normal car or truck to be arrested for drunk driving. In fact, the law applies to all vehicles operated on public property. That includes motorcycles, bicycles, motorized scooters, and much more.
Unfortunately for these folks, they learned this lesson the hard way as they found themselves behind bars and facing DUI charges when law enforcement caught up with them driving a more “unique” type of vehicle.
Boat
Heading out to the lake and enjoying a day of swimming, water skiing, and sunshine with friends is a favorite pastime of people all across the country. While consuming alcohol on a boat is not against the law, being intoxicated while driving a boat is. In fact, boating under the influence is defined in Alabama Code § 33-5-3(1). On top of it not only being against the law, it’s actually extremely dangerous and is one of the leading causes of boating related injuries and fatalities every single year.
However, some people learn this hard way, such as a young Indiana woman who was arrested for boating while intoxicated after a reckless maneuver caused the craft she was operating to violently overturn, tossing ten people into the water and injuring several of them.
Horse
While modern sports cars have hundreds or even thousands of horsepower, some people prefer to keep things lower-key and go with just a single horsepower to get them where they need to go. Such was the case with a California man earlier this year who was arrested after authorities found him riding his horse on a busy freeway. As you might have expected, his blood alcohol level was quite high—more than double the legal limit. Once officers got him to exit the freeway, they conducted a preliminary alcohol screening and charged him with “DUI on a horse.”
For those wondering, the horse was fine and quickly released to the suspect’s mother.
Golf Cart
There’s an old joke that says “Golf is the only sport where drinking and driving is not only legal, it’s encouraged!” The joke is a play on words with the golf term “driving,” which is when you take a mighty swing at the ball with your biggest club for maximum distance, plus the sport’s reputation for players enjoying a few brews on the course.
However, golfers often use electric-powered carts to get themselves and their heavy set of clubs around the course. When combined with alcohol, these motorized vehicles could be a recipe for disaster, or at least for DUI arrests. Such was the case in Sumter County, Florida, where a man was arrested recently after being found driving a golf cart. He initially told authorities that he believed the road had a golf cart path running alongside it (it didn’t).
Have you been arrested and charged with driving under the influence? Whatever vehicle you may have been driving, talk to a Birmingham DUI attorney from Tidwell Law Group as soon as possible! Call us at (205) 536-7770 to request a case evaluation.
