Ohio Judge Ordering People Facing Drunk Driving Charges to Install Uber or Lyft
“It’s far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars you’d have to pay for another [DUI],” said Judge Michael Cicconetti.
A judge in Ohio has been requiring people facing drunk driving charges to install ride-hailing apps like Lyft and Uber as a penalty for their crimes, according to The News-Herald.
Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael A. Cicconetti explained to The News-Herald that a repeat DUI offender gave him the inspiration to order future plaintiffs to use the ride-hailing apps.
"There’s nothing crazy about it,” Cicconetti said to The News-Herald. “It’s just common sense. Now that we have the technology and most people have the ability to do that, why not make it part of their sentence?
“If you can save one person from getting another OVI, one person from getting into an accident, one person from hurting somebody else, it makes sense. It’s just common sense. It doesn’t cost anybody anything to install it and activate it, and it’s far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars you’d have to pay for another OVI," Cicconetti said.
According to The News-Herald, 604 drunk driving citations were issued in Cicconetti's jurisdiction last year. The majority of them were issued by the Ohio State Patrol.
