4 thoughts on “DUI without the D

  1. I have an acquaintance who received a DUI while sitting in his car, in his garage, with only the radio on. He didn’t want to wake his family in the house so he chose to rock out to the radio in his car. Apparently the music was a bit loud and the neighbor called the cops on him. Cops came and arrested him in his garage for DUI because the keys were in the ignition! That ain’t right. I was wondering how the law deals with those button start ignition cars?

    • Wow, I have heard of “driveway” DUIs, but never a garage DUI! Thanks for sharing. Did your acquaintance take the case to a jury trial or plead out? I have seen juries acquit in “actual physical control” cases where it seems that they just didn’t want to convict despite what the law says–possibly because they too thought “that ain’t right.”

      I don’t know how a court would treat push-button ignitions. The statute itself doesn’t say anything about keys, but the location of the keys is one of many factors that the court (or jury) considers when deciding if there’s “actual physical control,” and it seems to be a VERY important factor. How do the push-buttons work? Don’t you have to insert a card or something?

      • Those “keyless” cars require the transmitter in the car to work. My experience with this was in a rental. Not a huge fan, I always seemed to forget to lock the damn thing. Curious how our hypothetical situation would pass in court since you could literally drive around with the “key” in the trunk. Anyhoo… Where’s that drive thu liquor store?

  2. They will still get you. I got a dui sitting in my car because I was physically in control, the key was in my purse. I wish, not really, I had been driving. At least I would have been guilty of dui. I probably would have not have been picked up if I had been driving.

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