If there are two things that should never be mixed, it’s skating and drinking. Whether we’re talking about ice skating, roller skating, wearing Heelys, or skateboarding doesn’t matter. Skating of any type is not compatible with being under the influence of alcohol.
It’s clear that drinking and skating can have a bad outcome. What most of us don’t realize deals with the full consequences of your decision. For example, there’s a good chance that you might end up in more legal trouble than you’ve bargained for.
Why Is Skating While Drunk A Bad Idea?
It’s common sense, really. Drinking turns your body into a perfect storm of heightened injury probabilities.
- People lose their sense of balance and have notable decreases in their coordination. This means that you might end up losing your ability to do anything on your skates, including standing or walking.
- Inebriation can also cause lapses in memory. This can lead to people forgetting to put on their skates the right way, which can lead to falls before you even stand up.
- And, when you pair that with the bravado you can get, the chances of you trying something stupid will increase significantly. The risks of having lapses in judgment can include anything from trying a trick that will make you fall on your neck to skating into oncoming traffic.
- Depending what you do in your skates, you also may end up getting into trouble with the law. How bad the trouble is will depend on local laws, the situation that arose, as well as how the cops feel about what you did.
Can Skating While Drunk Lead To An Arrest?
Here’s where things get sticky, and where many people tend to overlook the potential for consequences. What you do while you’re drunk can easily lead to legal problems later on, and we’re not just talking about the possibility of buying a car you can’t afford, either.
Getting drunk and skating can lead to an arrest in a multitude of ways. The most common issues are the ones below:
- Disorderly Conduct. Like many people who are caught doing stupid things on substances, you can get charged with disorderly conduct. This tends to be the go-to charge for people who do reckless things while under the influence of almost anything.
- Public Intoxication. Another misdemeanor in most states, you can get charged with public intoxication if you end up skating around drunk in public.
- DUIs. Though exceedingly rare, it’s possible to get a DUI while skating drunk.
Is It Possible To Get A DUI While Wearing Heelys?
Most people don’t know this, but it’s possible to get a DUI without actually driving a car. In fact, there have been many cases where people have ridden on non-car vehicles while drinking, only to get a DUI.
This is because the official definition of a vehicle is anything with wheels—or really, anything other than your own two feet. So this includes bicycles, motorcycles, tractors, and yes, skates. So it’s absolutely possible to get a DUI while wearing skates or Heelys.
In fact, there was one court case where a judge convicted a person for skating drunk while wearing Heelys. The incident occurred in North Beetoota, Queensland. The United States has seen several similar cases.
How Common Is Getting A DUI While Skating?
Because police are generally on the lookout for drunk drivers, actually getting a DUI while wearing skates isn’t common. In fact, it’s downright rare—to the point that most news groups will pick up the story if someone gets a conviction.
How Do DUI Charges Occur While Wearing Skates?
Generally speaking, there are only a couple of ways that police will likely charge you with a DUI while you skate. These include the following:
- Skating around in public, in front of police, while clearly being intoxicated. If you act drunk in public, police will stop you regardless of what you’re doing. Don’t be the person who’s clearly drunk.
- Skating around in a prohibited area, while reeking of alcohol. Should police stop you from skating in a public area and smell alcohol on you, they may ask you to take a breathalyzer. If you’re above the legal limit in your state, it could mean a DUI charge for you.
- Skating into traffic or having a traffic accident involving a car when you’re drunk. If you are intoxicated while skating and get hit by a car, you will be charged as a drunk driver.
Can Getting A DUI From Skating Bar You From Driving?
Here’s a fact that you probably should know if you were thinking about drinking and skating in public: any DUI you get while on roller skates will likely impact your driving record. In the eyes of the law, a DUI is a DUI. It won’t matter if it was on skates or behind a wheel.
This means that a DUI you get on Heelys has the potential to:
- Increase your insurance rates. If you own a car or a motorcycle, expect to see a bump up in car insurance premiums. Your insurer will treat your Heely-based DUI as a regular DUI simply because it shows your lapse in good judgment.
- Bang up your bank account. Most states in the nation take DUIs particularly seriously and therefore have mandatory minimum fines to help dissuade people from drinking and driving. Since a DUI on skates is still a DUI, you’d still be expected to pay the same fines as a regular car-based DUI.
- Bar you from driving. If you already had a pre-existing DUI on your record, then getting slapped with a DUI after a skate session gone wrong could get you a suspended driving license.
- Get you sued. If you were in a car accident and got charged with a DUI, there is also a chance that you might be held legally liable for the damages caused by the crash. This can lead car insurance companies to pursue you for damages.
- Get you jail time. If you have multiple DUIs or cause serious bodily harm to someone as a result of skating while drunk, you can also face jail time and additional charges.
Don’t Drink And Skate!
Even if it seems like a harmless endeavor at the time, the last thing you should ever do is put some wheels underneath you after you’ve had one too many to drink. Though this primarily counts as advice about getting behind the wheel of a car, it also holds true to skating or wearing Heelys.
No matter how you look at it, drinking while skating is a bad idea. So if you want to avoid jail time and keep yourself safe, make a point to skate only when sober.
