Court Opinion

ID: 9703278
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:48:29.173349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:47.037236
License: Public Domain

McGINLEY, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In Department of Transportation v. McLaughlin, 124 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 496, 556 A.2d 533 (1989), this Court held that the police officer, who observed a licensee passed out in the drivers’ seat with the motor running, lacked reasonable grounds to believe that the licensee was driving under the influence on a highway or trafficway. McLaughlin distinguished Lewis v. Commonwealth, 114 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 326, 538 A.2d 655 (1988), on the basis that, because Lewis was found in a private yard not his own, the officer could have assumed that he got there by leaving the highway or trafficway and hitting a tree on adjacent property. McLaughlin, on the other hand, was discovered in his own parking lot and there was no evidence that he had been anywhere else.
Unlike the majority, I would hold that the definitions of “highway” and “trafficway” contained in the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S. § 102, refer to a roadway which is open to the public. Like McLaughlin, Bird was discovered on a private residential parking lot. The Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S. § 3101(b), states that serious traffic offenses must occur upon highways and trafficways. There is nothing in this record to establish that the officer had reasonable grounds to believe that Bird was operating a vehicle on a roadway open to the public.
Accordingly, I would affirm the order of the trial court.