I certainly see implied consent and penalties because of it. But do you lose the ability to argue that you were sober or not driving or whatever? That's the part where it seems tricky to me.

I edited to make you look crazy. If you refuse in Illinois, it's automatic suspension of your license. Doesn't matter if you were actually drunk or not.

Hee. You can't make me look crazy, lady. That choo choo chugged out of here LONG AGO.

I believe I have a seat on that train.

Others have clarified the point better. You can argue that you weren't drunk but it doesn't matter from a legal point of view in CA once you've refused the breathalyzer.

A girl in the town where I grew up, a few years older than me, died in an accident when she fell asleep at the wheel. When my sister and I were teenagers, one of my mother's many rules for letting us borrow the car was that, if we were going somewhere late at night, the person in the passenger seat had to stay awake and make sure the driver stayed awake.

Also, it was stated multiple times in our trial that the question is not whether someone is driving drunk, but whether they are under the influence, and those are totally different standards. That is partly why the BAC > .08 charge was totally separate.

I think we're all losing track of the Megan's important realization here:

Mostly what I learned from this case was, if you flee the scene, stay fled.

The "don't get in a car with a drunk driver" stuff in school started around first or second grade. There were a few times when my family went out to dinner while my sister and I were in elementary school and my dad had a beer with dinner and my sister and I absolutely refused to get into the car with him driving afterwards. My parents usually decided to just shrug and have my mom drive, rather than try to explain the difference between "had a drink" and "drunk" to elementary school kids.

I've gotten to where I will pull off at a rest area, lock the doors, and nap for about 20-30 minutes.

Even exhausted I have a hard time napping on demand. But I'll just wait for some sleep or some actual alertness before I get back on the road.

Except recently driving home from Seattle. I got suddenly tired so I pulled off. I parked on the very edge of the rest stop, put a podcast on instead of my audiobook, tipped back my seat and turned the car off. Realized when I woke up twenty minutes later that turning my car off? Unlocks my door. Kids, this is why tired = stupid. But I felt way better for the rest of my drive home and thankfully was not murderized at a rest stop.

Megan's important realization

This is a key finding. If you flee, stay fled.