Court Opinion

ID: 9703599
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:01:42.840429+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:50.164123
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. I would uphold the constitutionality of the “implied consent law”, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1547(a)(2), and would reverse the orders of the Superior Court vacating the judgments of sentence and granting new trials to the appellees. The majority concludes that 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1547(a)(2) is unconstitutional under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. As a result, the majority holds that toxicological (blood, urine and breath) tests cannot be administered without probable cause to suspect that a driver is under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Aside from the fact that almost 50% of all fatal accidents involve alcohol, which I think is a sufficient basis to test all drivers involved in serious accidents, this statute applies to only those accidents involving the occurrence of a serious injury or fatality. Oftentimes, as in the Commonwealth v. Kohl, 395 Pa.Super. 73, 576 A.2d 1049 (1990) case, the driver of an automobile will be rendered unconscious as a result of the accident, precluding the opportunity to observe behavior and to obtain the probable cause that the majority finds imperative.' Should the inability of police officers to conduct a sufficient investigation in these circumstances immunize these drivers from prosecution for drunk driving? The majority believes that it should. I respectfully disagree. I believe that the magnitude of the drunk driving problem mandates an exception to the probable cause requirement and that a warrantless, suspicionless search is justified under these circumstances.
*170I begin by noting that legislation will not be declared unconstitutional unless it clearly, palpably and plainly violates the constitution. Commonwealth v. Mikulan, 504 Pa. 244, 247, 470 A.2d 1339, 1340 (1983). Hence, I begin this analysis with the strong presumption of constitutionality. Id.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated----” Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution provides that “[t]he people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions from unreasonable searches and seizures____” The touchstone of these provisions is reasonableness. In order to determine the reasonableness of a particular search or seizure we must balance the intrusion on the individual against the government’s promotion of legitimate interests. Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Ass’n, 489 U.S. 602, 619, 109 S.Ct. 1402, 1414, 103 L.Ed.2d 639, 661 (1989); Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 654, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 1396, 59 L.Ed.2d 660, 667-68 (1979); Commonwealth v. Blouse, 531 Pa. 167, 611 A.2d 1177 (1992). Commonwealth v. Tarbert, 517 Pa. 277, 535 A.2d 1035 (1987) (plurality).
That the state’s interest in maintaining highway safety by eradicating the drunk driving problem is compelling is beyond dispute. The 1988 Traffic Accident Facts and Statistics Report published by the Center for Highway Safety of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reveals that in 1990, there were 16,382 alcohol related traffic accidents; almost 50% of fatal accidents involved alcohol; 737 people were killed in 670 alcohol related fatal accidents; 17,216 people were injured in 11,170 alcohol related accidents. The economic loss due to alcohol related accidents in Pennsylvania was $1,599,550,756.00.
Conversely, the degree of intrusion on the individual is minimal. First of all, all persons by virtue of driving have impliedly consented to certain restrictions. Secondly, the intrusion occasioned by a blood, breath or urine test is not significant, since these tests can be conducted with a minimum *171of inconvenience or embarrassment. Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Ass’n, 489 U.S. at 624-68, 109 S.Ct. at 1417-1418, 103 L.Ed.2d at 665-66; Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966).
This statute furthers the public interest by deterring chemically impaired driving, facilitating the prosecution of chemically impaired drivers, and insuring that police focus their attention on getting prompt medical attention for those who are injured, rather than concentrating on a preliminary investigation.
In sum, the State’s interest in maintaining highway safety in general, and in preventing drunk driving specifically, is compelling; the degree of intrusion upon the individual is minimal; hence the balance weighs in favor of the State’s program, and a warrantless, suspicionless search is justified under the circumstances.
In Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Ass’n, 489 U.S. 602, 109 S.Ct. 1402, 103 L.Ed.2d 639 (1989), the United States Supreme Court upheld against a Fourth Amendment attack, a regulatory scheme similar to the Pennsylvania statute. In response to a significant number of alcohol and drug related train accidents, the Federal Railroad Administration promulgated regulations mandating blood and urine tests for railroad employees involved in major train accidents involving death, serious environmental problems, or extensive property damage.
The Court recognized exceptions to the general warrant/probable cause requirement when “special needs,” beyond the normal need for law enforcement, make the warrant and probable cause requirements impracticable. Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Ass’n, 489 U.S. at 619, 109 S.Ct. at 1414, 103 L.Ed.2d at 661. The Court went on to state that “when faced with such special needs, we have not hesitated to balance the governmental and privacy interests to assess the practicality of the warrant and probable cause requirements in the particular context.” Skinner, 489 U.S. at 619, 109 S.Ct. at 1414, 103 L.Ed.2d at 661. In assessing the practicality of the *172probable cause requirement,1 the Court stated that “[i]n limited circumstances, where the privacy interests implicated by the search are minimal, and where an important governmental interest furthered by the intrusion would be placed in jeopardy by a requirement of individualized suspicion, a search may be reasonable despite the absence of such suspicion.” Id. at 624, 109 S.Ct. at 1417, 103 L.Ed.2d at 664. After weighing the parties’ respective interests, the Court concluded that a requirement of particularized suspicion of drug or alcohol use would seriously impede the ability to obtain this information, despite the compelling need, and that “it would be unrealistic, and inimical to the Government’s goal of ensuring safety in rail transportation, to require a showing of individualized suspicion in these circumstances.” Id. at 631, 109 S.Ct. at 1420, 103 L.Ed.2d at 669.
Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court stated, in National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656, 665, 109 S.Ct. 1384, 1390, 103 L.Ed.2d 685, 702 (1989), that “our decision in Railway Executives [Skinner] reaffirms the longstanding principle that neither a warrant nor probable cause, nor, indeed, any measure of individualized suspicion, is an indispensable component of reasonableness in every circumstance.”
I believe that the rationale of Skinner should extend to the cases sub judice. The Pennsylvania statute, like the federal regulations, does not require toxicological testing as a condition of the mere operation of a vehicle, but is triggered only upon the occurrence of a stated event. In these cases, as in Skinner, the Government’s interest in regulating conduct to ensure safety creates a “special need” beyond normal law enforcement that justifies departure from the usual warrant and probable cause requirements. Additionally, in both instances, the public interest in eradicating drunk driving cannot adequately be met by more traditional law enforcement procedures.
*173The cases at issue involve serious accidents where a driver, passenger, or pedestrian requires medical attention or is killed. The exigency of the situation requires investigating officers to forgo the usual investigative techniques. When an individual is dead or in need of immediate medical attention the usual opportunity to observe behavior is not available. Treatment of the individual becomes paramount. Additionally, when drugs are involved, there is usually no odor present, therefore, without alternative methods of detection, drug use will go undetected if behavior cannot be observed. The majority, by finding the Pennsylvania statute to be unconstitutional allows the most serious and egregious cases to go undetected because of the inability of investigating officers to conduct an investigation. Therefore, I believe the present situation involves an instance where a compelling state interest would be placed in jeopardy by a requirement of individualized suspicion. Hence, I find the statute constitutional under the Fourth Amendment.
In Pennsylvania, this Court has also adhered to the belief that a finding of reasonableness may be predicated on less than probable cause, and has expressly approved the balancing of interests approach for determining reasonableness under Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Commonwealth v. Blouse, 531 Pa. 167, 611 A.2d 1177 (1992); Commonwealth v. Tarbert, 517 Pa. 277, 535 A.2d 1035 (1987) (plurality). Thus, we upheld the systematic stopping of vehicles at roadblocks without any individualized suspicion because the governmental interest in maintaining safe highways outweighed the individual’s privacy interests under the circumstances. I find the same to be true of the cases sub judice and would uphold the constitutionality of 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1547(a)(2) under the Pennsylvania Constitution.
In conclusion, I believe that a balancing test is appropriate to determine the reasonableness of Pa.C.S.A. § 1547(a)(2) under both the Federal and State Constitutions, and that the balance weighs in favor of the government’s interests in these circumstances. Hence, I believe that Pa.C.S.A. § 1547(a)(2) satisfies the constitutional requirements of both the Fourth *174Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Accordingly, I would reverse the orders of the Superior Court.
PAPADAKOS, J., joins this dissenting opinion.

. The majority concedes that, where probable cause has been established, the exigency of the situation renders a warrantless search reasonable.