Court Opinion

ID: 9625379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:38:31.831101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:07.382771
License: Public Domain

Hall, Justice,
dissenting.
As I read these statutes, Code Ann. § 68A-902.1, contrary to Garrett’s argument, is not an implied consent statute at all. It is a statute concerning the admissibility of evidence in a criminal proceeding, and was so construed in Nelson v. State, 135 Ga. App. 212 (217 SE2d 450) (1975), where the Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence of the state-run intoxication test could not be admitted into evidence when officers never advised Nelson that he could have an additional test made by persons of his own choosing. That is not the issue before us.
We must consider the implied consent law governing Garrett’s duty to submit to an intoxication test or lose his license in an administrative proceeding. The then-applicable statute was Ga. L. 1968,pp.448,452-453. (See also Code Ann. § 68B-306, now effective.) The 1968 statute said that a driver shall be deemed to have given consent to a chemical test "administered pursuant to the provisions of section 47 [Code Ann. § 68A-902.1] ...” Our question is whether this statute’s reference to the provisions of § 68A-902.1 also incorporates the necessity for the warnings Nelson required be given in the criminal context. I conclude that this is not meant and that such warnings are not required, because the purposes of the two statutes are highly dissimilar. See Strong v. State, 231 Ga. 514, 516 (202 SE2d 428) (1973).
Code Ann. § 68A-902.1 seeks to insure that a driver who agrees to have a test made to try to clear himself of a criminal charge (or civil liability) can put up his own test evidence if he distrusts the state’s test. The concern is with the reliability of evidence in the assignment of criminal or civil liability. On the other hand, the concern of Ga. L. 1968, pp.448, 452 plainly is with the administrative removal from the road of intoxicated *418drivers: the driver is deemed to give a continuing consent to be tested when appropriate or quit driving. Therefore, I do not read the implied consent statute’s reference to § 68A-902.1 to incorporate any requirement for a recitation of rights by the arresting officer before the driver may be asked to agree to the test or refuse it and lose his license.
Plainly it would be better practice for officers always to advise citizens of their rights as fully as feasible in the circumstances; but I would not allow Garrett to escape license suspension here simply because this better practice was not followed.
I respectfully dissent.