AN ACT PROHIBITING OPEN ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTAINERS IN MOTOR VEHICLES.

This bill makes it illegal for anyone to possess an open alcoholic beverage container in the passenger area of a motor vehicle while the vehicle is on a Connecticut highway or highway right-of-way (i. e. , road shoulders).

A first offense is an infraction subject to a $ 90 fine. A second or subsequent offense is a violation, not an infraction, and a court appearance is required. The fine is $ 200 for a second offense and $ 500 for a subsequent offense. Only the driver is subject to these penalties.

2. the living quarters of a recreational vehicle (e. g. , campers, camp trailers, and motor homes);

3. privately owned motor vehicle driven by a person in the course of his or her usual employment who is transporting the passengers at his or her employer's direction; or

4. passenger motor vehicle, if one of the passengers is its owner or lessee and can establish, by a receipt for payment made to the driver or other means, that the owner or lessee hired the driver.

In addition, the bill exempts from the prohibition any place that is under the control of the state or a municipality and open to public use for parking for any professional or college sporting event, during the period beginning six hours before the event and ending two hours after the event.

The bill defines an “open alcoholic beverage container” as a bottle, can, or other receptacle that (1) contains any amount of an alcoholic beverage and (2) is open or has a broken seal, or the contents of which are partially removed.

The bill defines a vehicle's “passenger area” as (1) the area designed to seat the operator of, and any passenger in, a motor vehicle being operated on a highway or (2) any area readily accessible to the operator or passenger. But the bill specifies that in a motor vehicle not equipped with a trunk, “passenger area” does not include a locked glove compartment, the area behind the last upright seat, or an area the operator or passengers do not normally occupy.

It is a class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $ 300, imprisonment for up to three months, or both, for anyone to consume alcohol while driving a motor vehicle (1) on a public highway, (2) on any road of a specially chartered municipal association or highway district, (3) in a parking area for 10 or more cars, (4) on any school property, or (5) on any private road on which a municipal traffic authority has established a speed limit pursuant to state law (CGS § 53a-213).

State law permits a restaurant patron to remove one unsealed bottle of wine for off-premises consumption from a restaurant as long as the patron has purchased a full course meal and consumed a portion of the wine with the meal on the restaurant premises (CGS § 30-22).

Under federal law (23 USC § 154), states must have an open container law meeting certain criteria or be subject to a diversion of a small percentage of federal highway construction grant funds to their highway safety grant programs. The states do not lose the funds; they are redirected from the construction programs to the safety grant program, including alcohol impaired driving enforcement. This annual penalty transfer currently applies to Connecticut. The Department of Transportation uses the transferred funds for hazard elimination projects and for making grants to municipalities and other state agencies for impaired driving enforcement, including sobriety checkpoints. This bill adopts many of the elements required for compliance with the federal mandate, but some of its provisions prevent it from being considered in compliance.

To comply with the federal mandate, and thus avoid the penalty transfer, a state's law must:

1. prohibit both possession of any open alcoholic beverage container and consumption of any alcoholic beverage;

2. apply to containers with any measurable amount of alcoholic beverage in them;

3. apply to all open alcoholic beverage containers and all alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine, and spirits that contain 0. 5% or more of alcohol by volume;

4. apply to all vehicle occupants, except passengers of vehicles designed, maintained, or used primarily for transporting people for compensation (i. e. , buses, taxicabs, and limousines) or the living quarters of motor homes;

5. apply to vehicles on a public highway and the highway right-of-way; and

6. require primary enforcement, rather than requiring probable cause that another violation had been committed before allowing enforcement of the open container law (i. e. , secondary enforcement).

Federal regulations define a vehicle's passenger area as the area designed to seat the driver and passengers while the motor vehicle is in operation and any area readily accessible to the driver or a passenger while seated, including the glove compartment. An open container is defined as any bottle, can, or other receptacle that (1) contains any amount of alcoholic beverage and (2) is open or has a broken seal or the contents of which are partially removed. Alcoholic beverages include (1) beer, ale, and other similarly fermented beverages containing 0. 5% or more alcohol by volume brewed or produced in whole or part from malt or any malt substitute; (2) wine of not less than 0. 5% alcohol by volume; or (3) distilled spirits known as ethyl alcohol, ethanol, or spirits of wine in any form including any dilutions or mixtures (23 CFR § 1270).

The federal regulations specify that a compliant open container law may contain an exception allowing an open alcohol container to be in a locked glove compartment or placed behind the last upright seat or in an area not normally occupied by the driver or passengers if a vehicle does not have a trunk.

State law defines a highway as any state or other public highway, road, street, avenue, alley, driveway, parkway, or place under the control of the state or any political subdivision of the state, dedicated, appropriated, or opened to public travel or other use.

By law, an alcoholic beverage includes the four varieties of liquor defined in law (alcohol, beer, spirits, and wine) and every liquid or solid containing alcohol, spirits, wine, or beer and capable of being consumed by a human being for beverage purposes. It does not include any liquid or solid containing less than 0. 5% of alcohol by volume.

Yea

Nay

(03/09/2009)