Q: Can you get a DUI while driving a riding lawnmower on the road?
A: You’ve got the law, and then you’ve got the interpretation of the law. The law would appear to be the easy part, so let’s start there. “A person is guilty of driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, cannabis or any drug if the person drives a vehicle within this state” and is impaired. Pretty clear, right?
But wait, is a riding lawnmower a vehicle? According to the law a vehicle is anything that can move on a road and can transport people or property. There are a few exceptions, but riding lawnmowers don’t make that list.
However, the courts have concluded that even though the DUI law says “vehicle” it actually means “motor vehicle.” For example, the law includes a bicycle as a vehicle, but you can’t get a DUI on a bicycle in Washington. (You can in some other states.) When you look at the history of our DUI laws and how the terms “vehicle” and “motor vehicle” have been used interchangeably in them, that interpretation makes sense. Or as the courts would say, it avoids “absurd or strained consequences.”
In traffic law, a motor vehicle is self-propelled or gets power from overhead wires, but does not include trains or power wheelchairs. That would include a riding mower. I can’t find any riding mower DUI cases in Washington, but there have been several cases around the country.
If a riding mower is a motor vehicle, what else might qualify? Could you get a DUI in a Power Wheels Barbie Cadillac Escalade (top speed – five mph), assuming you could fit in the driver seat that’s made for a 5-year-old? I don’t know about that one, but there have been DUI arrests in some strange vehicles.
In Ohio a man was arrested for DUI after he crashed his motorized barstool. In North Dakota, a man was arrested for driving a Zamboni at a high school hockey game while impaired. In Minnesota a man was arrested after crashing his motorized La-Z-Boy recliner in a parking lot. In New York, a man was arrested for driving a motorized beer cooler (full of beer). In Pennsylvania, an Amish man operating a horse and buggy was arrested for DUI. In Kentucky a man got a DUI while riding a horse. In Florida golf cart DUIs are a weekly event. Those are just some examples.
Some of those vehicles sound silly, but operating them impaired is a legitimate risk. Many of those arrests happened after a crash, like the man on a riding mower was hit by two cars after he swerved from the shoulder into the road. Impaired driving is a serious threat to the public, but any form of impaired self-transportation is a risk to the individual—even walking as nearly half of pedestrian fatalities in Washington, the walker is impaired.
You might have noticed that some of those arrests weren’t on public roads. DUI laws aren’t limited to public roads – they apply “within this state”, including in parking lots or inside an ice arena. You might also have noticed that all of them were men. Men are dumb when it comes to impaired driving, and with tragic consequences. In over 75% of impaired driving traffic fatalities in Washington, the impaired driver is a man.
For anyone contemplating their riding mower as an alternative to driving a car after drinking, you should reconsider; it’s both illegal and dangerous.
Doug Dahl writes a weekly column for this newspaper. He is with the state Traffic Safety Commission.
