Driving Defined

What is Driving under the DUI Laws

Under Chapters 23152 and 23153 of the California Vehicle Code, conviction for DUI requires that the individual accused of the crime is driving a motor vehicle. For the common person, an individual operating a vehicle and is intoxicated or impaired us liable under the penal statutes. What then is considered as driving under DUI laws?

The language of the law is plain as it says an individual that is driving the vehicle may be liable for the criminal offense. The law though did not foresee the other factual circumstances during an arrest for DUI. In order to identify these individual circumstances, the courts of California have interpreted the law to determine the definition of driving for purposes of conviction. The following are some of the interpretations of the term “driving”.

• The act of driving has been declared in the case of Mercer v. DMV as the “volitional movement of the vehicle” while the intoxicated individual is in physical control of the vehicle. There have been other interpretations to “actual physical control”:
1. In the case of Keeler v. Superior Court of Amador Country, the court interpreted the term “actual physical control of the vehicle” in the case of Mercer. This case said that both volitional movement and actual physical control must be present to be considered as “driving” under the penal statute.
2. This is further interpreted in the case of In re Queen, where both elements of volitional movement and actual physical control must be presented in court and be considered as circumstantial evidence in the appreciation of the proof presented by the prosecution.

• In driving the vehicle, there is no distinction needed if the said vehicle was driven in public or private roads.

In real life, a police officer must observe the circumstances described above in order to have probable cause to pull the driver over for violations of DUI laws. Some cases though have overstepped these legal definitions, such as opening the door of a parked car, is not considered as driving under the DUI laws. There is still a gray area though and this involves a parked vehicle with the engine running or not. Being parked is not enough to exempt an individual for culpability under DUI laws for all the attendant circumstances of the said incident need to be taken into consideration to determine a violation of the penal statutes.

In order to be fully apprised as to the application and effect of the DUI statute to your case, it is best to reach out to experts in the field. Do call the DUI Lawyers of the Law Offices of Ramiro J. Lluis for a free consultation today.