Articles Posted in DUI

On March 22, 2018, an Amish man was arrested in Ohio for drunk driving after he ran a stop sign.  He admitted to the police that he drank 10 beers.  The police noticed the failure to stop and then began following the buggy because they believed it may be lead by a runaway horse or that the driver was suffering from a medical emergency.  Once they caught up to and stopped the buggy, they found that the driver had a strong odor of intoxicants on his breath.  They also observed an open can of beer on the floor inside the buggy.  The driver of the buggy also was not able to pass the field tasks, including the one leg stand, walk and turn and horizontal gaze nystagmus.  The 21-year-old man was then arrested for drunk driving, and a breath test suggested that he had a bodily alcohol level of .12%.

It appears that this young man was on the tail-end of his “Rumspringa,” which is the Amish right of passage, where, from ages 16 to 21 Amish youth are encouraged to explore the world, including all its vices.  The hope and belief of the Amish is that once experienced, the youths will return to their formerly simple life and remain there for the rest of their lives.  In other words, they’ll learn that the outside world is not all it’s cracked up to be.

While the case described happened in Ohio, and while another Amish youth was arrested for DUI in Pennsylvania, it is certainly possible that such an arrest could also happen in Michigan. After all, Michigan is home to the Nation’s sixth largest Amish population.  In fact, Michigan has 86 Amish church districts which are spread among as many as 35 different settlements.  Many of these are in mid-Michigan, including Hillsdale and Branch Counties in the south. The largest Amish community is in St. Joseph County.  Known as the Centreville community, it also the oldest in Michigan.  The Amish communities in Michigan are also spread as far north as Mackinac County all the way up to the Upper Peninsula.  With all of Michigan’s Amish communities and buggies, it would seem that an Amish DUI is certainly a possibility in Michigan.  However, many of the Amish communities in Michigan are on the more conservative side, and not all Amish communities follow the Rumspringa tradition.

There are several ways to look at this question.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines the two terms this way. Notice the results-based language contained in these definitions:

• Impairment—Refers to the deterioration of an individual’s judgment and/or physical ability. Physiological and cognitive impairment begin at BAC levels below those that are associated with intoxication. As a legal standard, impairment and DWI laws are based on a person’s physical or mental impairment as judged on the basis of BAC level, performance in standardized field sobriety tests, or observed behavior. Although this report is focused on impairment from alcohol, impairment can result from other substance use, distracted driving, and other reasons.
• Intoxication—Refers to the condition of having physical or mental control markedly diminished by the effects of alcohol or drugs. This is usually based on a subjective determination (one feels the sensation or observes a behavior in another person). Physiological impairment begins at BAC levels below those that are associated with intoxication. Intoxication is not a legal standard.

Scientists have produced charts such as this one[i], which much more carefully explain the differences:

The legal definition is still different. In Michigan, the law says that it is unlawful to operate a motor vehicle while intoxicated. This is called OWI or operating while intoxicated.  A person is intoxicated if they have a bodily alcohol level at or above .08% and/or where alcohol has materially and substantially lessened their ability to operate a motor vehicle in a normal way.  The standard jury instruction for impairment says this:

To prove that the defendant operated while visibly impaired, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that, due to the drinking of alcohol the defendant drove with less ability than would an ordinary careful driver. The defendant’s driving ability must have been lessened to the point that it would have been noticed by another person.

 

i[] See, Jones, Garriott’s Medicolegal Aspects of Alcohol, Pharmacology and Toxicology of Ethyl Alcohol, Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company, Fifth Ed., pg 28, 2007. (chart copyright by Kurt M. Dubowski, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, OK, 1997).