Electric Scooters are now a common sight in Arizona city streets. Thousands of Arizonans use scooters every day to get around without having to use a car. Can I get a DUI on an electric scooter. The answer is NO, except POSSIBLY in Scottdale.
Arizona State DUI laws in the he Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 28, Transportation.
- Those laws make it a crime to drive or exercise control over a vehicle while impaired.
- “Drive” means to operate or be in actual physical control of a motor vehicle.
- by which a person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a public highway’’.” Since an electric scooter is “a device in, on or by which a person or property is or may be transported” and has a “motor” why isn’t an Electric Scooter a “motor vehicle” so that impaired riders are guilty of DUI?
Until August 31, 2020 the answer was an electric scooter was a “motor vehicle” and therefore, “yes”, someone could have gotten a DUI while riding an electric scooter. Fortunately, in 2019 the legislature enacted 2019 Session Laws Chapter 120, which said “electric scooters” are not “motor vehicles,” as long as the scooter weighs less than 75 lbs. and cannot go faster than 20 mph. Therefore, a person no matter how impaired they are, cannot now get a DUI for riding an Electric Scooter.
Gordon Thompson
For more information about Arizona DUI and criminal law issues please contact Gordon Thompson who has used his experience to write a blog on topics of interest. You can also chat with Gordon about your specific questions.
Website: https://www.GordonThompsonAttorney.net
Blog: https://www.GordonThompsonAttorney.net/blog/
