Posted on 11/25/2009 9:10:12 AM PST by JoeProBono
ATLANTA - A riding lawn mower may have four wheels, a powerful engine and can cost as much as a used car. If it's stolen, however, the Georgia Supreme Court concluded Monday that it's not a motor vehicle.
The 4-3 decision overturned the conviction of Franklin Lloyd Harris, who was convicted of felony motor vehicle theft after he loaded a Toro riding mower in 2006 from a Home Depot in Dalton into his van and sped away. Because Harris was a repeat offender, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Public defender Michael McCarthy told the justices that while Harris should still be charged with theft, he shouldn't be punished as if he had stolen a car. A riding mower is many things, a modern mechanical marvel among them, but McCarthy said it's not a motor vehicle under state law.
Prosecutors countered that the state defines a "motor vehicle" as a "self-propelled" device, and there's no doubt a riding mower meets that standard.
The state's top court agreed, concluding in an 18-page decision that the sentence should be overturned because the purpose of a riding mower is to cut grass, not transport people.
"To be sure, a riding lawn mower is capable of transporting people or property and of driving on the street for short stretches," Justice David Nahmias wrote in the opinion. "But that is not what the machine is designed for or how it is normally used.".....
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Now, anyone in GA who was ever busted for being drunk in the operation of a lawnmower (come on, I know it’s happened) has an out.
Beat me to it. There was some guy like last month (posted on FR somewhere) who got picked up for DUI on one.
I was thinking the same thing. there are videos of VERY drunk guys on mowers being pulled over. GA seems to be a likely place.
I was thinking the same thing. there are videos of VERY drunk guys on mowers being pulled over. GA seems to be a likely place.
What’s your stance? Should a guy operating a lawnmower on public roads while drunk get charged with a DUI?
I wonder how many DUI convictions in Georgia involved drunk poeple riding mowers.
“Once, when I had been drunk for several days, Shirley decided she would make it physically impossible for me to buy liquor. I lived about eight miles from Beaumont and the nearest liquor store. She knew I wouldn’t walk that far to get booze, so she hid the keys to every car we owned and left. But she forgot about the lawn mower. I can vaguely remember my anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and looking longingly out a window at a light that shone over our property. There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition.
I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jones
No. Maybe drunk in public, or some other similar thing.
I look at it this way: A lawnmower is not a motor vehicle by definition, as it cannot be legally registered and operated on a highway - some states also require recreational vehicles (ATVs, Dirt bikes, snowmobiles, etc...) to have registration stickers for use on public land. Lawnmowers don't fit this category, either.
It may fall under a similar category as a farm implement that may be operated in short duration on the highway between fields. If there is a rule against that, or a rule against operating unregistered, self-propelled devices on the highway, then maybe.
Woman gets DUI — for horseback ride - Criminal weirdness- msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17953259/
Colorado cowboy pulled over for DUI on horseback | WCBD
I agree. I always grimace when someone was sort of semi-responsible enough not to drive a car and gets hit with it anyway. Of course, a Segway would be a better idea than a lawnmower. We’ve got a guy in my town that does this and seems to have been able to get away with it.
Three things you should never do, one of them being....NEVER pi$$ off a Georgian, such as myself! Stick it in your ear!!!
At least you can now ride your lawnmower in one state without being interfered with by a SWAT team.
Why should I obey traffic laws?
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