Tennessee residents who might think that they are doing the right thing by getting a ride home instead of driving themselves after drinking should learn what might happen to them if the driver they ride with has also been drinking. Certainly every situation is unique but one incident that happened recently ended not only with a driver being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol but his three passengers were also arrested.
A vehicle was reportedly being driven at night without its lights on and was said to not be staying in one lane but to be moving into multiple lanes and even driving in parts of multiple lanes at one time. For these reasons, officers pulled the driver over and said they saw an open container and beer caps. This prompted them to take steps standard in a drunk driving investigation, including asking the driver to participate in field sobriety tests. Reports indicate that the man was unable to complete the requested actions.
The driver had three passengers in his vehicle and because they had been reportedly seen reaching for items, officers asked them to get out of the vehicle to be pat down. There were no reports that weapons or drugs were found but the three people were deemed to be drunk and arrested for public intoxication. Two of the people were also charged for having provided identification cards that could not be located on file.
When arrested in Tennessee, talking to an attorney may offer defendants important information about the charges faced and what options exist for a defense.
Source: Times Gazette, “DUI leads to multiple arrests,” Christnna Warinner, March 14, 2017
