A New Jersey appellate court yesterday upheld the principle that convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) can be imposed on individuals who were not driving. David Montalvo, 36, found this out as he responsibly tried to sleep off his intoxication in his GMC pickup truck while safely stopped in the parking lot of the Market Place Deli on a cold February morning last year.
Follow the link, of course, for more details, but this just doesn’t seem right to me. If he was arrested for public intoxication, that would be one thing, but DUI while you’re not driving?
Sounds like the law in his state isn’t written very well. Maybe he was sleeping in the drivers seat (which seems very uncomfortable), and the law assumed he could easily drive off.