Walk It Through: The Stop After the County Fair
A weave over the line, a breath test asked for, a refusal and its warnings, and 10 days to ask for a hearing.
Leaving the fair at night, a car drifts over the center line and a deputy pulls it over.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
A first stop and arrest with a breath test. Blood tests at a hospital, drugs, and the criminal sentence that may follow are on their own pages.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Reasonable and articulable suspicionThe suspicion an officer needs that a violation has taken or is taking place before stopping a motor vehicle.
- SummonsA written order to appear in court an officer may hand out instead of making an arrest, on the Uniform Summons and Complaint, which the person signs as a promise to appear.
- Traffic infractionA traffic violation that is not a crime. The penalty is a fine of $25 to $500 unless another section says otherwise, a license suspension, or both.
- Administrative suspensionThe suspension the Secretary of State imposes on a driver found to have operated at 0.08 grams or more, separate from any court case.
- Implied consentThe duty of a person the police have probable cause to believe operated under the influence to submit to and complete a test of blood, breath or urine.
- OUIOperating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants, or with an alcohol level of 0.08 grams or more. A first offense is a Class D crime.