– As a result of the new rules for driving electric scooters under the influence of drugs, there was a need for clarification of the questions this raises regarding temporary revocation of driving privileges and driver’s license confiscation, says deputy attorney Andreas Seehusen Karlsbakk in a press release from Elden Advokatfirma. Together with lawyer John Christian Elden, he represents a woman who was stopped by the police on 8 July this summer while riding an electric scooter in Oslo. A breath test showed that the woman had a blood alcohol level of 0.98 half an hour after she was stopped. On 15 June, the new rules reclassifying electric scooters from “bicycle” to “motor vehicle” came into force. This means that you can lose your driver’s license for drunken driving with an electric scooter. Cancels ruling The police seized the woman’s driver’s license temporarily, but because the woman refused, the police sent the case to the district court. The district court ruled in favor of the woman, but the prosecution appealed to the Court of Appeal, which said that they can temporarily seize the driver’s license until the case against her is finally settled. Now the Supreme Court’s appeals committee has overturned the ruling from the Court of Appeal. “The committee lacks a concrete assessment of why her use of the electric scooter while under the influence of alcohol indicates that she poses such a traffic safety risk that she should be temporarily deprived of the right to drive until the confiscation issue is decided in the ordinary criminal case,” writes the appeal committee. No information on high speed The committee points out that the purpose of temporarily depriving someone of their driving license until a case is settled is to remove dangerous drivers from traffic immediately. “There is no information that A (the woman, journalist’s note) was speeding, was a danger or a nuisance to anyone or otherwise behaved carelessly or recklessly,” they write. The appeal committee also points out that the woman has been driving for 25 years without any reactions.
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