The statute that makes driving while impaired (DWI) a crime in North Carolina reads:
A person commits the offense of impaired driving if he drives any vehicle upon the highway, any street, or any public vehicular area within this State:
(1) While under the influence of an impairing substance; or
(2) After having consumed sufficient alcohol that he has, at any relevant time after the driving, an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more . . . .
(GS 20-138.1)
This statute seems, on its face, relatively clear. However, what does the term “vehicle” mean in this statute? It clearly contemplates things like cars, but does it also include things like mopeds, motorized scooters, tractors, riding lawn mowers, horses? Surprisingly, it varies depending on what state you are in. Some examples of more creative understandings of what a “vehicle” is include a moped in New Mexico ( 24 P.2d 365), a snowmobile in Michigan (475 N.W.2d 717), an Ohio court even sustained a conviction for drunk driving on a bicycle (541 N.E.2d 775).
There is even a trend to include horses as “vehicles!” San Francisco arrested a man and charged him with “driving” a horse under the influence of alcohol when the man became intoxicated and stole a horse from a nearby racetrack. The man rode the horse into the path of an oncoming truck. He was arrested and charged with grand theft, cruelty to animals, and drunk driving. Recently in Pennsylvania, police in Mercer County arrested a man for riding a horse while intoxicated. The trial judge threw the case out because he realized that the term “vehicle” in the DWI statute was obviously not meant to include horses. The prosecution, unable to see this logic, appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Luckily, sanity prevailed, and the charge was dismissed.
Luckily, in North Carolina we don’t have to worry about a horse being considered a “vehicle” because our legislature, in their wisdom, saw it fit to include a provision in the statute that specifically excludes horses from the definition of “vehicle.” North Carolina is not without its quirks, however. In North Carolina, one can be arrested for a DWI while driving a tractor on the road while intoxicated. What will they think up next?
