A Motorized Wheelchair Is Not a “Vehicle” For DUI Prosecution

State v. Brown, Jr., Minn.Ct.App., 6/13/2011.  Isn’t it wonderful what you learn from the appellate courts.  First they taught us that minnows are not fish.  Now, they’ve taught us that a motorized wheelchair is not a “vehicle” such that its occupant can be prosecuted for drunk wheelchair driving.

Mr. Brown drove his scooter – he’s physically disabled – on the city sidewalks of Grand Rapids.  A local merchant called the cops, suspecting that Mr. Brown was tipsy.  He apparently was:  his breath alcohol reading was 0.17.  He did not need a driver’s license to operate his scooter, he could not get vehicle insurance for it, and he could not register it at the local DPS shop.  Minn.Stat. 169.011, subd. 53 – yes, there really are that many subdivisions – says that anyone in a wheelchair is a “pedestrian:

It is plain that for purposes of traffic regulations contained in Chapter 169, Brown’s scooter is a wheelchair and is not a motor vehicle, and Brown, who uses the scooter as a substitute for walking, is, while operating his scooter, a pedestrian.

Enough said.