Horse and Bicycle DUI Bill

Rounds Signs Horse, Bicycle DUI Bill Into Law

Starting July first, South Dakota bar owners may want to install hitching posts and bike racks out front. That's when a new law takes effect that insulates bike and horse riders from being arrested for drunken driving.

Governor Rounds signed the legislation. The measure removes bikes, trikes and horses from drunken driving statutes.

Legislators offered the bill as part of an effort to update the state criminal code. Horses, bikes may be DUI-freeBill that doesn't punish drinkers for not driving under consideration.

By Jenny Michael - Associated Press Writer

Intoxicated South Dakotans should be able to ride horses or bikes home from bars without fear of being arrested for drunken driving, legislators decided Wednesday.

The House Transportation Committee voted 10-1 for a bill to exempt horses and bikes from the statutory definition of vehicles, sending HB1190 to the House floor.

Rep. Tom Hennies, R-Rapid City, said people who have been drinking and choose not to drive cars or trucks should not be punished for using alternate transportation.

"We should not push people to stop driving when they've been drinking, and at the same time penalize them if they get on a bicycle when they're drunk," the former police chief said.

Hennies told of a Pennington County man who was arrested several times for drunken driving, including a fourth arrest while pedaling a bicycle home one night. The man could have been sent to prison if he had been convicted, Hennies said.

"I don't know anybody that had that intent when we're talking about drunk drivers," he said. A Pierre man was arrested several times in recent years for being drunk on his horse. At one trial, the man said he was upset for getting stopped because he had not been drinking and smelled of alcohol only because he had put liniment on his horse, adding that he wasn't a danger because his horse "knew the way home." He was found innocent that time.

Hennies acknowledged that drunks on bikes and horses can cause problems, but he said it would be better to charge them with disorderly conduct than drunken driving.

The bill would affect more than just drunken driving, Hennies said. He said people on horses and bikes would technically be excluded from other state traffic regulations, such as obeying stop signs, although most city ordinances would still require it.

"You won't have to buy a license plate for your horse, either," Hennies added.

Rep. Gordon Peterson, R-Wall, wondered if the bill signified the official end of the horse and buggy era in South Dakota.

"Cowboys that get drunk on Saturday nights and ride home in small towns won't like this too much," he said. "They won't have their fun with their cops."

Source:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/13715231.htm