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The football in colleges is almost a religion in the South and when the SEC Championship or the Peach Bowl comes to Atlanta, the city closes down to celebrate. The tailgating activities in front of the Mercedes Benz stadium are enormous. Hours before the game, fans pitch tents, grills and coolers in the nearby parking lots. Although it has long been a tradition to have a few beers before entering the stadium, how you handle your car during a tailgate may easily put you in a place where you are in a big legal tangle.
The majority of individuals believe that in a strict sense, since they are not on a road and in a parking lot, this does not mean that they should be subjected to general traffic regulations. It is a most widespread, and a very dangerous misconception of Georgia law. The law does not make a distinction when it comes to impaired driving, whether you are on the interstate or parked in a busy stadium parking lot.
Attempts to keep comfortable are just one of the most common methods of fans being arrested during a game day. Games in early September are known to be hot in Atlanta and late November games may be freezing. It is amazingly easy to find oneself in a parking lot where the driver who has been drinking sits in their parked car, turns on the engine to either run the air conditioner, blow up the heater or tune the radio to a pre-game show. Having an Atlanta police officer or state trooper patrol the lot and spot you sitting in the driver seat with the engine running, you can be arrested of a DUI right then and there, even before you move the car an inch.
This occurs due to a legal term called actual physical control. In Georgia, one is not required to have been driving a moving vehicle when he or she is charged with DUI. In case you can currently move the vehicle, as it is usually demonstrated by sitting in the driver seat with the keys in the ignition, an officer will be able to argue that you are actually in physical control of that vehicle. There is no easy way to fight an actual physical control charge since it depends a lot on the actual circumstances surrounding the situation which is why using the services of an experienced Atlanta DUI Lawyer is crucial in case your tailgate is stopped by the arrest.
The other big problem is when the fans attempt to park their cars during the tailgate. There are times when a friend has to squeeze his/her truck in between your parking spot, or the parking attendants are requesting you to move your car a few feet to open a lane. When you have been drinking and you get behind the wheel of your vehicle to drive it, even five feet in the parking lot, you are committing a DUI. The patrol police that patrol the lots are quite vigilant and they will not hesitate to pull a vehicle over to see who has a drink jump into the driver seat in order to adjust a vehicle.
Open container laws also complicate the tailgating scene. Although consuming alcohol within the immediate area of your tailgate party is not viewed as a criminal act in certain lots, one may not consume an open alcoholic beverage within the passenger section of his/her vehicle. When you are sitting in the cab of your truck and the door is open and you have a beer in the cupholder, you are breaking the open container law, which provides officers with probable cause to start a complete drunk driving investigation.
When you get arrested at a tailgate, the results can destroy more than just your day at the game. You are likely to miss the game altogether since you will be taken to the local jail and also, you will be subjected to the normal punishment of a criminal conviction that includes fines, probation and suspension of driver license. The amount of arrests that occur in large sporting events alone is astounding, and the local court dockets are usually filled and the prosecutors are not going to be lenient with those who commit crimes on game day.
To fight a tailgate arrest, a strategy must be in place. An experienced Atlanta DUI Attorney will take into consideration the specifics of your arrest, asking whether the police officer was justified to approach your car, whether he or she was in the right to initiate actual physical control, and whether the field sobriety tests were administered in the disorder that is a busy parking lot. The key to safeguarding your record is to take the charges seriously when you are arrested. With good legal representation, you may be able to protect your rights and fight to ensure that a tailgate mistake does not have long time repercussions on your life.
