You’ve never been pulled over for drunk driving before. However, on your way home one day, you see that there is a sobriety checkpoint ahead of you. Police officers are simply talking to all of the drivers, pulling some of them aside to perform more extensive tests if the police believe they are impaired.
You may not be impaired at all, but you may still want to avoid interactions with the police. Do you have to keep going and drive through the checkpoint? Or can you just turn around and go a different direction, avoiding the situation entirely?
Turning around legally
The big question here isn’t if you’re allowed to avoid the checkpoint. You are. Instead, the key lies in how you do it.
Every maneuver you make needs to be legal. If it’s not, that is both a red flag to the police that you may be impaired and a reason for them to pull over your vehicle.
For example, say that you just turn on your blinker, take the next right turn and drive down a side street to get where you’re going. That’s all completely legal, and the police aren’t going to chase you down for avoiding the checkpoint.
On the other hand, say that you pull an illegal U-turn in the middle of the road. The police are almost certainly going to pull you over for the U-turn, and it’s very likely that they will already suspect that you are impaired. You may be subjected to field sobriety tests, breath tests and the like.
Have you been arrested?
If you’re facing drunk driving allegations, whether they came from a traffic stop or a sobriety checkpoint, it is imperative that you know what legal defense options you have.