Alabama DUI Law: Pending Legislation – Consolidating Alabama’s DUI Charges

Posted on by DUI Attorney

This is the second installment in a three part blog series on pending Alabama DUI related legislation.  Last time we discussed a bill in the Alabama House that aims to close a loophole in the law mandating driver’s license suspensions for people arrested for DUI who blow .15 or higher.  Today we look at a bill that seeks to consolidate the different ways a person can be charged with the offense of DUI in Alabama.  We will call this bill the “DUI Consolidation Bill” for short.

Under Alabama’s current DUI law a person can be charge with DUI in five different ways.  For starters, let me mention what is common to these five different ways of charging DUI.  The first way to charge DUI accuses a person of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while he or she has a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher.  The second way accuses a person of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.  The third accuses a person of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of a controlled substance to a degree which renders him or her incapable of safely driving.  The fourth accuses a person of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the combined influence of alcohol and a controlled substance to a degree which renders him or her incapable of safely driving.  The fifth and final way is a catchall; it accuses a person of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle with under the influence of any substance with impairs the mental or physical faculties of the person to a degree which renders him or her incapable of safely driving.

As you can see, in all five types of DUI charges, it must be proven that the person either drove a vehicle or was in “actual physical control” of a vehicle while in a certain forbidden mental/physical condition.    The Consolidation Bill would reduce these five ways of charging DUI to only two.  It would do this by keeping the first type of charge (blood alcohol level of .08 or higher) unchanged while merge the last ways of charging DUI into just one.  The new type of charge would accuse the person of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of any substance or substances to a degree which renders him or her incapable of safely driving.   As you can see this wording is very close to the current catch-all DUI charge.

The Consolidation Bill would make one other change to the DUI statute.  It would add a definition of the term “under the influence” that would define it as “not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties by reason of the introduction in to the body of alcohol, a controlled substance, a drug, or any substance, or a combination of two or more of those substances.”

It is my opinion that the Consolidation Bill is totally unnecessary and brings nothing new to the DUI legislation table.  Under the influence of alcohol is defined by Alabama Supreme Court case law in Ex parte Buckner, 549 So. 2d 451 (Ala. 1989), which defines it as drinking alcohol to the point that the alcohol makes you unsafe to drive.  Definitions of under the influence of controlled substance, alcohol combined with controlled substance and any substance are all defined in Alabama’s current DUI Statute.

Join me next time for the final installment in this three part series on pending Alabama DUI legislation.  In our final installment we will discuss a bill that I believe represents the most significant change to Alabama DUI law of the three bills we have discussed.