Court Opinion

ID: 9732187
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:11:03.898838+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:24.755727
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge,
concurring
My reading of the Michigan statutes convinces me that the court in People v. Walters (1987) Mich.Ct.App., 160 Mich.App. 396, 407 N.W.2d 662, drew an erroneous distinction between them. The Walters opinion, as noted by the majority here, states that the DWVI statute “addresses the problem of the driver whose ability has been impaired, not eliminated.” Id. at 664. This clearly implies that the OUIL statute applies when the driver’s ability has been destroyed or “eliminated.” Such implication is given greater strength by the holding in People v. Lambert (1975) Mich., 395 Mich. 296, 235 N.W.2d 338, that the DWVI offense is a lesser included offense of OUIL and that the distinction lies in the “degree of intoxication which the people must prove.” 235 N.W.2d at 342. However, Lambert does not support the proposition that in order to convict of OUIL the State must establish that the driver’s ability to drive had been eliminated or destroyed. The OUIL statute speaks in terms of the driver’s ability as “substantially and materially affected,” i.e., impaired. People v. Walters, supra at 664 (quoting People v. Lambert, supra at 342).
When read together, the Lambert and Walters cases convey the message that both Michigan offenses involve impaired driving ability and that the difference lies in the degree of intoxication as it affects the driver’s ability. In this sense then, one who is driving in a normal manner may be validly convicted of DWVI but may not be convicted of OUIL.
The majority opinion here correctly observes that in Indiana we have only one alcohol impaired driving statute as op*170posed to the two Michigan statutes. To this extent, therefore, I am able to agree that Michigan’s DWVT statute is not clearly substantially similar to our OWI statute. However, I also believe it to be accurate to say that our statute does not correspond to Michigan’s OUIL statute either. There are material differences between the two.
All three statutes are “impairment” statutes, but the Indiana law requires that the loss of “normal control” be such that the vehicle operation endangers a person. According to the Lambert court, the Michigan DWVI statute merely requires the State to prove that, due to consumption of intoxicating liquor, the defendant was driving “with less ability than would an ordinary, careful and prudent driver,” People v. Lambert, supra, 235 N.W.2d at 342, and the OUIL provision prohibits driving when the ability is substantially and materially affected. Endangerment is not explicitly set forth as an element of the offense, although one might reasonably conclude that one whose driving ability is substantially and materially impaired necessarily constitutes a danger to himself and to others.
Be that as it may, I find the decision in Olmstead v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Dept of Transportation (1996) Pa.Commw., 677 A.2d 1285, as cited by the majority here, to be persuasive.
For this reason I join my colleagues in affirming the judgment of the trial court in the case before us.