Car Accident, 0.19% BAC, Time Last Drove Unclear, DMV Win

Our client, age 76 and from Ethiopia, was found at the corner of South Prairie and Buckthorn Street at about 6:30 p.m. There had been a non-injury car accident wherein our client was making a turn from South Prairie to Buckthorn and clipped the corner of a Toyota Highlander stopped at a stop sign. Our client then ran into a parked Toyota pickup.

Our client’s car, a 2000 Toyota Corolla, had a half-finished pint of vodka in the front seat area. The Corolla had major front end damage to the left front corner.

When an Inglewood Police Officer came to the scene and asked our client for his driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance, our client handed the officer a copy of his tax return.

Eventually, the officer obtained the needed documents and asked our client if he had consumed any alcohol that evening. Our client’s answer was, “I’m drunk.”

Due to our client’s age and his having just been in a car accident, the officer did not administer any field sobriety tests. He did not even attempt to have our client submit to a preliminary alcohol screening test (PAS) at the scene. Instead, he just arrested our client.

Our client had no prior criminal history. He had been living in the United States for 40 years and was a green card holder.

After being released from the Inglewood Police Department after signing a promise to appear in the Inglewood Courthouse in about five months, the client called Greg Hill & Associates.

Greg could notice the client’s accent when he first spoke with Greg and so Greg asked him where he was from. The client explained he was from Ethiopia and Greg asked him his name. The client shared the same last name as one of Ethiopia’s most famous long distance runners.

The client was happy that Greg knew about one of Ethiopia’s most famous runners, but our client was not related to him. However, the client asked Greg why he was so familiar with Ethiopian long distance runners and Greg explained his running history. Greg knew that it was the only country in Africa that resisted colonization efforts by the European powers and had been independent after Italy withdrew from the country after invading it during World War II.

The client then explained how he had lived in Ethiopia when the country was under Haile Selassie and how, as a boy, he went to the airport in Addis Abiba to welcome back Abebe Bikila after he won the gold medal in the marathon after the Olympics in Rome in 1960. Greg and the client then talked about how Bikila had been sadly paralyzed in a car accident after his second gold medal.

The client then left Ethiopia during the reign of President Mengitshu Haile Mariam after Haile Selassie.

The two then talked about other great Ethiopian distance runners such as Miruts Yifter, Haile Gebrselassie, Keninsia Bekele and the Dibaba sisters, as well as some of the current Ethiopian stars like Yomif Kajelcha and Letesenbet Gidey. The client knew about all these runners like many U.S. NBA fans can rattle off the names of the entire NBA all-star teams each year, or the NFL players from their own city.

The client then described his car accident and the basic facts of the case. He asked Greg if he had a chance at all since his blood alcohol content (BAC) was measured at 0.19%.

Greg was honest and told the client that at the DMV hearing, it is very difficult to “win,” meaning have one’s driving privileges reinstated, particularly when there is a car accident and high BAC. However, Greg explained that each police report must be closely evaluated and, surprisingly, sometimes there are significant errors that allow the client to keep his license because the Department of Motor Vehicles cannot prove one of the three or four issues they need to establish to reinstate a suspension.

Greg soon received the police report for the client’s case and was pleasantly surprised to find that the police officer failed to even ask our client if he was driving the car involved in the collision. He also failed to establish when the accident took place, which meant the presumption under Vehicle Code § 23152(b) would not apply. Under § 23152(b), one’s measured BAC is presumed to be the same as the BAC when one was driving if the breath or blood test is within three hours of last driving. However, if no time is given for when the person last drove, the BAC is legally meaningless. Lastly, the police report did not record which officer observed the “Objective Signs of Intoxication.”

Greg explained to the DMV that these significant omissions from the police report rendered the police report largely irrelevant for purposes of a DMV hearing following a DUI.

The DMV agreed and reinstated our client’s driving privileges. He was very happy, as he was still working and needed his license.