New Mexico non-driving DUI
Reader’s Question:
We were having fun the other night and we had a few drinks. We were at a parking lot of a bar waiting for a sober friend to drive us home. Two patrol officers who were roving saw us and asked my friend if he has been drinking. Apparently, he was on the driver’s seat but the key wasn’t actually in the ignition of the car. He was charged with New Mexico DUI. Can they actually charge someone a DUI without actually driving?
Karyn
Las Cruces, NM
New Mexico DUI law can sometimes be very tricky. It is a matter of the law of the state just exactly what it means to be “operating” a motor vehicle. If the car is not moving, or if the driver falls asleep, would it still count as a DUI if the person behind the wheel was found to have a blood alcohol level above the legal limit? What if it wasn’t his car? Or what if the person was only waiting for someone to pick him up? Or if he was only asked to look over the car for a minute while the driver buys something to eat? You might be surprised to hear the answer to some of these questions.
And the answer, surprising as it can be, is yes. You can be charged with DUI in any of the situations mentioned. A person does not have to be driving the vehicle on a roadway to be arrested and charged with DUI. You can just be sitting in a parking lot outside of a bar waiting for someone to drive you home. In your case, since your friend was behind the wheel, even if he was not driving, and has been drinking and was found to have a blood alcohol level of above the legal limit, he can still be charged with New Mexico DUI. The only exception to this rule is that if you are parked on a private property as opposed to a public property.
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