A person can get pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence for driving any kind of vehicle in public space — including bikes, horses, boats and lawn mowers. A 54-year-old Georgia man may not have been aware of this a few weeks ago, but he knows now. The man was pulled over by a police officer in Monroe this week who suspected he was driving the mower while intoxicated.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the man was driving the mower in the middle of the street when he was pulled over. The mower was pulling a small trailer, and the man said that he mowed lawns for his job. The man admitted to the police officer that he had been drinking alcohol prior to driving the lawn mower.
It is unclear whether he had to undergo any field sobriety tests or breathalyzers from the available information on the arrest. He was arrested for DUI, driving a vehicle without a driver’s license and failure to maintain a lane.
The man was arrested at the scene and brought to the Walton County jail. The man’s arrest was a violation of his probation and he was required to stay in jail. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he was arrested on July 21 and he was still in jail as of Monday, August 8.
The man has been arrested before and has served time in prison. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the man served six sentences between 1974 and 1997 in state prison in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Corrections makes such information available. The man was last in prison in 1997. He was released in December 1997 after he was in jail for five months for a drug possession conviction for which he was sentenced to 180 days.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Georgia man gets DUI on riding lawn mower,” Alexis Stevens, Aug. 8, 2011