She Was Already Court-Ordered to Have a Breathalyser in Her Car | DWI Bodycam

At around 10:43 PM on Saturday, September 21, 2024, a Belmar Police Department patrolman heard what sounded like a crash near Belmar Boulevard and Route 35 in New Jersey. No one had called it in. He went looking, and found a grey Ford pickup still moving with heavy front-end damage. He stopped it in a Shell station parking lot on the Belmar and Wall Township line. The driver had come from a wedding. She told officers she had had a couple of drinks. Officers ran three standardised field sobriety tests — horizontal gaze nystagmus, walk and turn, and one leg stand — and placed her under arrest. Four citations were issued that night. Three of them are what you would expect. The fourth is the reason this video exists: N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.19 — failure to install an ignition interlock device. You are not charged with that unless a court has already ordered you to have one. And in New Jersey, a court orders one after a drink-driving conviction. The device exists for one reason: so that the second time never happens. This video is about what sits between a first offence and a second — a court order, a device, a programme, a suspension — and what it means when all of it is already in place and a truck still ends up driving away from something it hit. All charges described here are citations. Nothing in this video should be taken as a statement that any charge resulted in a conviction. DISCLAIMER: This video is based on body-worn camera footage and records from the Belmar Police Department obtained under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. Body-worn camera footage held by New Jersey law enforcement agencies is a government record. Nothing in this video is legal advice. #Bodycam #DWI #NewJersey