If you’re going out for some New Year’s drinks, a BC Lawyer doesn’t recommend sleeping it off in your vehicle.

Acumen Law’s Kyla Lee says you may not intend to drive, but that intention can always change and the possibility of it changing is significant. “All you have to do is be in care or control of the vehicle. So having the present ability to set the vehicle in motion and some risk existing that’s not completely impossible or implausible that you would set it in motion. Now there are circumstances where you can rebut that you were in care or control.”

Lee says even if you can prove you had no intention to drive, there’s a good chance you will get charged and then have to fight it in court. “Essentially you’d have to show evidence that either you had some sort of an alternative plan like you were sitting in the vehicle to stay warm or you were waiting for a taxi that you had already called and that was already on its way.”

Lee also warns against driving home the next morning as you may still not be sober enough to legally operate a motor vehicle. “Lots of people run into trouble this way because you wake up in the next few hours and you don’t feel the effects of alcohol anymore but you’re sill impaired and you’re still over the limit. So sleeping it off is very dangerous because not only is there a risk that your going to set the vehicle in motion, but there’s a real risk that you’re going to do so while you’re still over the legal limit.”

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