Quote:
Originally Posted by MrFisty
Has he hired a lawyer?
It's more expensive on the front end, but cheaper/worth it long term, especially in odd situations like this.
In some places, it's about where the keys are (Within reach, IIRC in MS, where I used to live). A decent lawyer could do some work with that...
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We have been through this. In Alberta and Ontario (and pretty much every other Province actually) if the keys are accessible at all it is care and control. They could be locked in the trunk but if you have a button to open it they consider it "accessible". A lawyer can't argue that but the judge would indeed take it into consideration when sentencing. The whole premise (which is actually sound) is that if the keys are anyplace nearby the driver could grab them and drive while impaired. Since it can take 12 to 24 hours to drop below the legal limit and very few people are willing to sleep in their car for that long then the expectation is that they will indeed drive at some point. Could they be in better shape after a couple of hours? Sure. Would they be safe to drive? Probably not.
I know everybody feels for the guy and all but he made a bad choice in even getting into the car and will pay the price at some level for that choice. I am not sure that it should be a criminal offense when somebody is not actually driving but there need to be some ramifications. This whole "he did the right thing by sleeping" argument doesn't cut it for me. We have no clue he "did the right thing". Maybe he had every intention of driving and just passed out. Perhaps he would have rested for 1/2 an hour and decided he was good to go. We don't know what would have happened but can be pretty sure he wasn't going to sit there in an Alberta winter until he was fully recovered.
Not sure if any of you have ever been impacted by an impaired driver but I have. My wife's cousin and best friend were killed by an impaired driver when he plowed into them head on. The year old baby that they were coming back from picking up for adoption almost didn't make it and has permanent brain damage from the accident. At 12 years old they function at the level of about a 4 year old and this will never get better. It came out in court that the impaired driver had not had a drink in 4 hours but still blew almost twice the limit. Oh and he didn't have a scratch on him.
Sorry for preaching but I have very little compassion for people that get caught for impaired even when they say they weren't going to drive. They could have and eventually would have.