Quote:
Originally Posted by Swarly
This part is really ####ed up. So I can drive home after having let's say 4 beers, for sake of argument, which would have me blow 0.045 which is perfectly legal. Someone makes a call saying I`m driving drunk (I`m not, but they saw me swerve and assumed I`m drunk because they didn`t see the squirrel I avoided) and the cops show up at my house 1.5 hours later, during which time I threw back another 4 beers putting me at 0.085. And I`m now convicted of DUI for never breaking the law? Is this correct? if so it is a really messed up law.
Also, since you seem knowledgeable about this topic, I was told by a friend that if you blow less than 0.05 but anything above 0 they can detain you at the checkstop to get you to blow again in 20 mins (for up to 2 hours total) to see if your BA is on the rise. I wasn't able to confirm this anywhere else but all the news stories are so canned and gloss over so much, so I thought I'd ask here. If this is true I have a problem with it for 2 reasons; first, this completely throws the 'it's only a couple min inconvenience to save a life', as now having just one beer at the bar after work or during the game would be much more than just a min. second, relates to my first paragraph, you're driving home with BA of 0.045, perfectly legal, but they detain you and make you wait 20 mins to blow again, now you blow 0.05. Well ####, I would have been home in 5 mins and never broke the law, but now since I was detained I'm convicted?
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It is important to not conflate the provincial and federal legislation and also what can be done with actual grounds to suspect a person has alcohol in their body as compared to without. I don’t think I could just say yes or no to the question you are asking without a fair bit of clarification that is not well suited to a message board.
And in the interest of being clear, here is the actual text of the Criminal Code offence and exception (for alcohol)
320.14 (1) Everyone commits an offence who
(a) operates a conveyance while the person’s ability to operate it is impaired to any degree by alcohol or a drug or by a combination of alcohol and a drug;
(b) subject to subsection (5), has, within two hours after ceasing to operate a conveyance, a blood alcohol concentration that is equal to or exceeds 80 mg of alcohol in 100 mL of blood;
(c) subject to subsection (6), has, within two hours after ceasing to operate a conveyance, a blood drug concentration that is equal to or exceeds the blood drug concentration for the drug that is prescribed by regulation; or
(d) subject to subsection (7), has, within two hours after ceasing to operate a conveyance, a blood alcohol concentration and a blood drug concentration that is equal to or exceeds the blood alcohol concentration and the blood drug concentration for the drug that are prescribed by regulation for instances where alcohol and that drug are combined.
(2) Everyone commits an offence who commits an offence under subsection (1) and who, while operating the conveyance, causes bodily harm to another person.
(3) Everyone commits an offence who commits an offence under subsection (1) and who, while operating the conveyance, causes the death of another person.
(4) Subject to subsection (6), everyone commits an offence who has, within two hours after ceasing to operate a conveyance, a blood drug concentration that is equal to or exceeds the blood drug concentration for the drug that is prescribed by regulation and that is less than the concentration prescribed for the purposes of paragraph (1)(c).
(5) No person commits an offence under paragraph (1)(b) if
(a) they consumed alcohol after ceasing to operate the conveyance;
(b) after ceasing to operate the conveyance, they had no reasonable expectation that they would be required to provide a sample of breath or blood; and
(c) their alcohol consumption is consistent with their blood alcohol concentration as determined in accordance with subsection 320.31(1) or (2) and with their having had, at the time when they were operating the conveyance, a blood alcohol concentration that was less than 80 mg of alcohol in 100 mL of blood.
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