A lot of Florida drivers do not know that they don’t have to be driving their vehicles to get charged with a DUI. In fact, if you’re merely sitting in your vehicle, and parked on the side of the road without moving, you could be cited with a DUI violation if police suspect you are intoxicated.
Many drivers, for example, believe that they are being responsible by stopping and pulling over when they realize that they are too drunk to drive. Of course, this is one of the most responsible actions that anyone can take if he or she is too intoxicated to drive. However, the next course of action should be to exit your vehicle and call a taxi to take you home.
Recent arrest of Tiger Woods could be an example of this issue
Most readers of this blog have heard about Tiger Woods’ recent DUI arrest in Jupiter, Florida. Police found Woods asleep in his vehicle, which was pulled off to the side of the road. When they woke him up, they performed field sobriety tests on him, and the tests caused authorities to suspect that he was intoxicated.
Woods, however, did not appear to be intoxicated by alcohol as police report that his Breathalyzer test resulted in a 0.000 percent blood alcohol content. Because Tiger failed his field sobriety test, authorities arrested him and brought him into the police station on DUI charges.
In this case, like the example scenario described above, it does not appear that police actually saw Tiger driving while intoxicated, but the law allows for such charges even if an allegedly intoxicated driver was just sitting in his or her vehicle and not operating it. Police did observe that Tiger’s Mercedes-Benz had damaged bumpers and rims, two flat tires, scrape marks and a broken tail light.
Tiger Woods has responded to the DUI allegations with a public statement, saying that he suffered an unexpected reaction to his prescribed medications. The drugs included Vicodin, a powerful opiate drug for pain.
Were you accused of drunk driving in Florida?
If you drive in Florida, let Tiger Woods’ recent arrest be an example. It’s not sufficient to merely pull off to the side of the road if you’re too intoxicated to drive. You need to exit your vehicle and call a taxi to take you home. Those accused of DUI should also remember that they, just like Tiger in his case, will remain innocent of any and all DUI charges until — and only if — they are proved to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
