It is a Saturday evening in Atlanta. You and your friends have been out in Midtown or BeltLine. You and your friends have enjoyed a couple of drinks, and you think it is time to move on to the next place or go home. You know you are not supposed to drive your car, and leave it parked. There are a series of electric scooters, Bird, Lime, or Spin, sitting on the corner.
It appears to be the ideal responsible decision. It is inexpensive, it is entertaining and keeps you out of the driver seat of a 4,000-pound car. You unlock your scooter using the app and ride off to the night.
You think you are being safe. Yet you have just done a big crime in the eyes of the law.
The majority of riders attribute the use of electric scooters to toys or at worst bicycles. They think that should they be stopped by the police, then they may get a ticket of being intoxicated in the streets or be warned against walking around. The startling truth is that in Georgia and most of the other states, the exposure of a truck driver who has taken an electric scooter drunk driving has the same charge as that of alcohol-impaired driver of a truck on the interstate: Driving Under the Influence.
THE DEFINITION OF A “VEHICLE”
This is a source of confusion based on the definition of a motor vehicle in the law.
The law was uncertain on new micro-mobility devices over the years. Nevertheless, the recent laws and judicial determinations have made it clear that since they use any motor (electric or otherwise) and carry people or goods, they are subject to the general category of motorized vehicles in the traffic code.
This implies that all the road regulations apply. You have to give way to pedestrians, you have to stop at stop lights and most importantly you have to be sober.
Just like when you are pulled over by a police officer, they can administer the same Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFSTs) that the officers apply to car drivers. They may request you to track with your eyes a pen, take a straight line and stand on one leg. You will be arrested in case of failure or blowing beyond the legal limit in a breathalyzer. You will be chained, thrown into the back of a squad car and taken to jail.
THE ACTual Rating: Your Drivers License.
The worst shock that scooter riders are subjected to is the fate of their real driver license.
The common conception is that most individuals believe that, since they do not require a license to rent the scooter, then they cannot have their license taken. This is false.
Since this is a DUI, the fine is imposed on your right to drive any motor vehicle. In the event of conviction of a DUI on a Bird scooter, the Department of Driver Services (DDS) will suspend your Class C driver license. Not only will you lose the skills to drive your car to work, to the grocery store and to take your kids to school all due to a ride on a 25-pound scooter.
In addition, the conviction places on your permanent driving record. The insurance rates of your car will increase drastically, as though you were driving a sports car. Employers who conduct background checks in the future will view a typical DUI conviction; it will be hard to put that you were riding a scooter. You are merely another drunkard to the world.
THE DANGER FACTOR
The physical risks are increased besides the legal risks. The balancing and coordination needed to ride a standing scooter is a lot of balance and coordination which alcohol specifically impairs.
There is a surge in scooter trauma (broken wrists, facial injuries, head injuries) in the emergency rooms of Atlanta. In the case of alcohol, the reaction times required to prevent a pothole or a curb road vanish. These injuries are often considered by the prosecutors as aggravating factor on the basis that you were a threat to others and to yourself and hence deserve more stringent sentencing.
The reason you require an Atlanta DUI lawyer.
A scooter DUI should be defended in a subtle manner. Although the statute can define the scooter as a vehicle, it is quite common that grey areas exist when it comes to the point of termination. Was it on private property? Was it in a footway where motor vehicles technically cannot be, which presents a jurisdictional dilemma?
Moreover, in such instances, validity of the Field Sobriety Tests is doubtful. Even when you fail the scooter with an unsteady balance after falling off, it might be a physical trauma of the fall, and not intoxication.
That is why you require a legal guru who is out of the box. James Yeargan is usually attributed to a unique and contemporary case such as this where he is the best Atlanta DUI Attorney. His staff realizes that technology is quicker than the legislation, and they are aware of how to make the case that the inflexible DUI laws were never designed to be so oppressive towards micro-mobility products.
When other lawyers would simply accept your plea, a superior Atlanta DUI attorney will go to work to decouple the mode of transportation with the intent of the driver, to have the claims trimmed down to reckless driving or public drunkard-type charges, which would save your driver his license.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The second time you are leaving a bar, and you see a glowing scooter on the sidewalk do not see it as a loophole. View it as a vehicle.
In case you have overdrunk, the only ride that would be safe is the passenger seat of an Uber or Lyft. They should not get a ride of less than $15 and use it to pay a legal case worth 10,000 and a suspended license. It may seem that the scooter is a toy, however, the handcuffs are quite real.
