What Does Care Or Control Mean?

Welcome back to the Kruse Law YouTube Channel. So glad you could join me today. I want to talk about an interesting topic in DUI law. What does care or control mean? Well, first of all, a person could be charged with operating a vehicle, driving it, but operation also includes care or control. So this is an interesting topic. 

What does care or control mean? Well, it essentially means being in the car, in some fashion, sitting, for example, in the driver’s seat. You’ve got the keys in your hand, or the keys in ignition. Maybe you’ve got the keys and you’re sleeping in the back of the car or the passenger and you know, the penalties are exactly the same. So if you get convicted of care or control, it’s exactly the same penalties for first, second, third time offenders, so it’s as if you were driving. So how do you defend these charges? Well, you have to try and show that there was no risk of the vehicle being put in motion. Let me give you some examples where cases I’ve won over the years. So let’s say you’re at a bar. You go outside the bar and get your car, start the ignition, and you’re sitting there, but you phone a taxi, well, you’ve got a plan. 

There’s no risk that the vehicles may put in motion. You’re not to drunks, so you’re not going to stumble and hit the key you know, when you drive the car and the taxi is on its way, the taxi arrives and the police arrive, and you get charged? Well, that’s a case that you could probably win because you had a plan. Situations where you’re sleeping the back seat, they’re tricky situations. You can get convicted. It depends on the situation. Like the location of keys, for example is important, but you always have to have a plan. My advice is to you, if you’ve been drinking, never get in a car with the keys. But there’s ways and means of winning, and basically you have to show there is no realistic risk that the car would be put in motion. Now the passenger seat is another situation as well. 

Let me give an example there of a case I’ve won. Husband and wife get in a fight. She boots him out of the house. He decides to take shelter in the car for the night, for example, you know, turns on the keys and heats the car. Police show up because the neighbor said, “who’s the drunk in the car”. Well, we won that case because, you know, plan to go back into the home the next day. But there’s many, many tricky situations where a person decides to pull over to the side of the road, they feel they’re too drunk, and they decide to sleep it off, and they never get out of the car. You know, that person is probably going to get convicted that person needs to divest themselves with the keys, get out of the car, get some fresh air, phone a cab. I’ve won some situations where there was a break, where the person got out of the car, you know, at the side of the road, and is pacing around and phoning a cab. That those are potentially winnable if you decided to cut the driving but do the right thing. 

Never get in a car. First of all, never drink and drive. But most importantly, never use a car for shelter when you’re drinking if you got your keys, because you’re clearly at risk of getting charged with impaired care or control, which is if you can get convicted, it’s exactly the same penalties as if you were driving. 

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