A Tesla owner’s excuse for his DUI crash

The driver had a blood-alcohol content nearly double the legal limit and a tenuous relationship with consciousness when his car slammed into the back of a parked fire truck on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge.

Still, he became maybe the first to add a technologically advanced new entry to the list of drunken driving excuses.

He wasn’t driving, the man told the highway patrolman Monday morning. The car was.

According to the California Highway Patrol, the driver explained that his Tesla electric vehicle “had been set on autopilot,” obviating the need for him to be in control of the vehicle or, well, sober.

He was wrong, of course, and was ultimately jailed under suspicion of driving under the influence. But as word of another Tesla autopilot crash spread, the case of car as designated driver became an interesting thought exercise for anyone with more than a passing interest in vehicles that drive themselves.

If Elon Musk and other forward-thinking automakers have their way, there will soon be a time when there is no more drunken driving, because cars never have to wonder whether they’ve had one too many vodka martinis.

But until we all have our own computer-controlled, two-ton chauffeurs, we’re left with an increasing number of cars with a raft of features that make them semi-autonomous — vehicles that are safer and smarter, if not particularly geniuses.

Carmakers are transparent about that caveat emptor quality of their vehicles.

Read the full article here: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/01/23/a-tesla-owners-excuse-for-his-dui-crash-the-car-was-driving.html

For more local DUI news and information please visit our website https://www.toronto-dui-lawyer.ca/

Should Ontario overhaul how it charges drunk drivers?

The head of Mother’s Against Drunk Driving is calling on the Ontario government to overhaul how it charges people caught driving drunk and to implement partial decriminalization, a change the province appears open to considering.

Andrew Murie, CEO of MADD Canada, told Ontario Today on Thursday that partial decriminalization of driving under the influence charges reduces deaths caused by drunk driving.

Drunk driving to be largely decriminalized in Alberta in 2018
B.C. drinking and driving deaths down significantly
Since British Columbia introduced decriminalization legislation in 2010, police officers have been offering people caught driving under the influence for the first time — as long as they have not caused damage to property or injured anyone — the option of choosing administrative sanctions or criminal charges.

In a few years, the number of road deaths related to impaired driving had fallen dramatically.

“The focus of that program is solely on things that might rehab and reduce recidivism, where the criminal code focuses more on a punishment,” Murie said.

“Immediately behaviour changed [in B.C.],” he added. “People were continuing to go out and purchasing alcohol, but when it came to the actual act of driving their behaviours changed.”

Processing administrative sanctions is also much quicker than processing criminal charges and sending someone to court, so the change is saving money in courts and in police services, he said.

Read the full article here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/decriminalize-drunk-driving-madd-ontario-1.4473689

For more local DUI news and information please visit our website https://www.toronto-dui-lawyer.ca/