I’ve posted in the past about people being arrested for driving a bicycle under the influence. In these cases, the courts have often decided that a bicycle qualifies as a "vehicle" and so riding one triggers all of the usual drunk driving laws and penalties. See, for example, Drunk Biking, DUI Roadblock: 240 Sober Drivers, 1 DUI Bicyclist and DUIs on Bicycles.
These posts have often been met with disbelief. Many of this blog’s readers cannot imagine that law enforcement would waste their limited resources on something so trivial — or even that it is possible to be arrested and convicted of drunk driving on a bike.
For those reacting with this understandable incredulity, I would refer them to the following YouTube video, published a couple of weeks ago: LAPD Arrests Man Walking Bike for DUI.
The video, taken by a bicyclist watching another bicyclist pulled over by a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle cop, shows the man given field sobriety tests by the officer — 3 times (which he appears to perform well). He is then also given a field breath test – two separate batteries of testing. (Note: As riding a bicycle does not require a driver’s license, there is no "implied consent" authorizing a breath test.) During the questioning and testing, another LAPD motorcycle cop arrives, presumably as backup — followed a few minutes later by yet another officer in a police car. The bicycle rider is then arrested for drunk driving, handcuffed and driven away.
Another victory in MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving".
(Thanks to "Joe".)
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