Weaving in and out of lanes on the road is perhaps the most popular reason to be pulled over by police. But what kind of weaving should one be stopped by police for? The law in North Carolina has been a little hazy on this subject and with the new ruling by the NC Supreme court on 6/14/2012 perhaps there is more clarification or more confusion. In North Carolina the rule used to be an officer did not have reasonable suspicion to pull someone for weaving within their lane of traffic without something more. This has started to change and evolve with two recent court decisions in NC.
Previously if a driver was just weaving within his lane of traffic it was unlikely to be found that a police officer would have reasonable suspicion to pull him over without more. In the new cases that have come down the court has said that if a driver is continuously and systematically weaving in his lane than an officer has reasonable suspicion to pull someone over just based on that. These cases focus largely on a driving that is weaving within his own lane of traffic. If a driver is weaving across lines of the road into another lane of traffic an officer does have reasonable suspicion to stop without more.
So with the new decisions being handed down in North Carolina it appears that a police officer may pull someone over sooner than they could previously. This ruling gives more room to law enforcement to pull over someone suspected of DWI. If you have been pulled over and charged with a DWI you need to contact an attorney who knows the law.
