Walk It Through: Pulled Over In New Jersey
Three documents, a phone in the hand, and the breath test at the station.
Lights behind you on the parkway. You pull onto the shoulder and the officer walks up.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One stop on a public road. Whether the stop itself was lawful, the roadside coordination tests, the sentence after a conviction for driving while intoxicated, and the open container rule are not covered here.
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.
- Insurance identification cardOne of three documents a driver has whenever in charge of a vehicle on the highways, with the license and the registration certificate, shown when a police officer or judge asks in the course of duty.
- Driving while intoxicatedOperating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor or a narcotic, hallucinogenic or habit producing drug, or with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or more.
- Ignition interlockA device installed in a vehicle before a person convicted of driving while intoxicated, or of refusing the breath test, drives again. On a first offense, the person may not drive until one is installed in the vehicle they most often drive.
- Implied consentAnyone who drives on a public road is deemed to consent to breath samples when an officer has reasonable grounds to believe they were driving while intoxicated. The officer reads a standard statement of the consequences of refusing.
- Intoxicated Driver Resource CenterThe program a person convicted of driving while intoxicated attends: for a first offense, 12 to 48 hours.
- Hands freeThe only lawful way to use a wireless phone or electronic communication device while driving a moving vehicle on a public road, placed so it does not interfere with required safety equipment.
- Reckless drivingDriving heedlessly, in willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others, in a way that endangers or is likely to endanger a person or property.