Florida defense attorney explains exactly how to ‘sleep it off’ in your car to avoid a DUI
Andrew Simko is a personal injury, immigration, and criminal defense attorney in Florida. To start off 2025, he took to social media to remind drivers that if you’re in the captain’s seat with your keys on you, and you had too much to drink, an officer can write you up for a DUI.
Yes, it’s actually a good idea to sleep it off in your car over driving under the influence.
“The thing is, it still is a way to get a DUI,” Simko explains. So why then, can an officer hand you a violation anyway? Well, it’s because if you’re found in a clear position to have full physical control over your car’s operation while under the influence, that’s enough to slap you with a charge.
This is the case even if you had no actual intention of driving and just meant to “sleep it off.” To authorities, the scene just isn’t obvious enough to avoid a BAC-related violation.
Here’s how to sleep it off in your car without getting a DUI
“I would make it so an officer cannot say that I had the ability to drive the car,” Simko says.
“If I were to go about this, and I didn’t feel like I was ready to drive, and I wanted to sleep it off in my car, I would go in the back seat, I’d take my keys, I’d put them in the trunk or put them outside the car,” he explains.
So, making sure you don’t have your keys on your person or anywhere near where you’d need them for someone to assume you could operate the vehicle is the key here.
Now, there are a bunch of comments about how you can put your keys in your trunk without stranding yourself. It’s important to understand your specific car’s features, here. If the trunk doesn’t work well for storing your keys – like you’re afraid of getting locked out – then put them somewhere else. Just don’t keep them anywhere within reach while you snooze, and don’t fall asleep in the driver’s seat.
