Court Opinion

ID: 9634307
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:08:31.033823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:00.469736
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
concurring.
There are none so brave, none surer of their faculties than one warmed with the fruits of forgotten summers. That they may imbibe more than the legal limit is a risk they take, if they drive. Every risk they forgo is one less for everybody. It is a quibble to suggest that one may not know his own limit, when as Mr. Justice Larsen notes, the State could prohibit an eyedrop. I agree with the majority that the imposition of absolute liability is permissible in the case at hand, Cf. Commonwealth v. Field, 490 Pa. 519, 417 A.2d 160 (1980) (upholding Section 3732 of the Vehicle Code against constitutional attack), and for that reason I join in the decision to reverse.
However, I believe that the majority’s discussion regarding culpability in cases involving sentences of 90 days or more is somewhat premature and for that reason I write separately. Section 3731(e)(l)(iii) of the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(e)(l)(iii), provides that a person is subject to imprisonment for not less than ninety days if he has “twice previously been convicted of an offense under this section or of an equivalent offense in this or other jurisdictions within the previous seven years.” There is nothing in this record to indicate that appellee here has been previously convicted of driving while intoxicated. Thus, he was not subject to the 90 days provisions of the statute.
I would go no further than to hold that the imposition of absolute liability in this case does not offend appellee’s constitutional rights.