Defendant was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII). Before trial, he moved to suppress evidence obtained as a result of an allegedly invalid traffic stop. The trial court upheld the validity of the stop, and defendant challenges that ruling on appeal. We affirm.
We state the facts consistently with the trial court’s findings.
State v. Morton,
Based on what he had seen, Zbinden concluded that defendant had failed to stay within his lane, in violation of ORS 811.370, and stopped him. After speaking with defendant, Zbinden also developed probable cause to believe that defendant was driving under the influence of intoxicants and arrested him for that crime.
Before trial on the DUII charge, defendant moved to suppress evidence that Zbinden had obtained as a result of the traffic stop. He argued that Zbinden lacked probable cause to believe that he had violated ORS 811.370. Defendant raised two related but separate arguments in support of his motion. He argued that he had stayed within his lane, as ORS 811.370(1)(a) requires, because he had not crossed over the center line. Alternatively, he argued that, even if he had failed to stay within his lane in violation of ORS 811.370(1)(a), ORS 811.370(1)(b) permitted him to move outside his lane as long as he did so safely. Defendant reasoned that nothing the officer had observed could reasonably have caused him to conclude that defendant’s actions were unsafe. The court disagreed and denied defendant’s motion. The jury found that defendant was guilty of driving under the influence of intoxicants. On appeal, defendant argues that the *123 court erred in denying his motion to suppress. He raises the same arguments on appeal that he raised below.
Oregon statutes require probable cause to stop a person for a traffic infraction.
State v. Matthews,
As noted, defendant advances two arguments on that point. He argues that ORS 811.370(1)(a) does not prohibit driving on the center line and that, even if it does, ORS 811.370(1)(b) permits driving outside one’s lane if it is safe to do so. Defendant argues that, because there was no evidence that his actions posed any safety concerns, he did not violate the statute. A fortiori, the officer lacked probable cause to believe that he did. Because defendant’s arguments turn on what ORS 811.370 prohibits, we begin with the statute’s text. It provides, in part:
“(1) A person commits the offense of failure to drive within a lane if the person is operating a vehicle upon a roadway that is divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for traffic and the driver does not:
“(a) Operate the vehicle as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane; and
“(b) Refrain from moving from that lane until the driver has first made certain that the movement can be made with safety.”
Defendant argues initially that he did not violate subsection (a) of the statute. He acknowledges that his tires were on the double yellow line, but he argues that, as long as *124 he did not cross that line, he stayed “within a single lane,” as the statute requires. Defendant reasons: “As in tennis, ‘If it hits the line, it’s in.’ ” The state responds that, if defendant’s interpretation were correct, ORS 811.370(1)(a) would authorize two cars traveling in opposite directions on a two-lane road to both drive on the center line.
The statute’s text and context lead us to conclude that the state’s interpretation of subsection (1)(a) is correct.
See PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries,
To be sure, the statutory requirement that a driver stay “entirely within a single lane” is not absolute. The legislature has modified that requirement by adding the phrase “as nearly as practicable.” Practicable means “possible to practice or perform,” “capable of being put into practice, done
*125
or accomplished” or “feasible.”
Frasier v. DMV,
Defendant advances an alternative argument. He argues that, even if he failed to stay “within [his] lane,” as subsection (a) requires, he did not violate ORS 811.370 unless he also failed to comply with subsection (b), which requires that a driver “[r]efrain from moving from [his or her] lane until the driver has first made certain that the movement can be made with safety.” Defendant argues that subsections (a) and (b) are two elements of a single offense; both must be proven to establish the offense. He also argues that, as a factual matter, “[t]here is no evidence that the movement (even if driving on a yellow line is a violation of the first element of the statute) made was made without regard to whether it could be made ‘with safety.’ ”
We agree with defendant that subsections (a) and (b) should be read together.
See Frasier,
In this case, defendant does not claim that he was moving from one lane to another. He was not attempting to cross the double yellow line to pass a car ahead of him. Not only was there no car in front of defendant, but passing on a double yellow line would have constituted a different traffic offense. See ORS 811.420 (making it an offense to pass on the left where prohibited); ORS 810.120(2)(b) (double yellow lines mark a no-passing zone). In any event, the question on appeal is whether the officer had probable cause to stop defendant for a traffic infraction, and the officer reasonably could have concluded that defendant was not moving from one lane to another when he failed to stay within his lane. Because the officer had probable cause to believe that defendant had violated ORS 811.370, the trial court correctly denied defendant’s motion to suppress.
Affirmed.
Notes
The question whether a person reasonably believed that probable cause exists presents a question of law.
Morton,
The statute’s context leads to the same conclusion. The legislature has stated that its policy in enacting the vehicle code is “[t]o provide maximum safety for all persons who travel or otherwise use the public highways of this state.” ORS 801.020(11)(a);
see DLCD v. Jackson County,
Defendant argues, however, that ORS 811.430 provides relevant context that supports his position. That statute prohibits driving “on a highway divider,” which it defines as “a dividing space, barrier or * * clearly indicated dividing section so constructed as to impede vehicular traffic * * ORS 811.430(1). The fact, however, that the legislature has prohibited driving on median strips and other barriers separating highways provides no reason to interpret the requirement that drivers stay within their lanes as permitting them to drive on the lines that mark the boundaries of those lanes.
This is not a case in which defendant’s car’s tires touched the center line only briefly. We accordingly need not decide whether that act, standing alone, would give an officer probable cause to believe that a driver had failed to operate his or her car “as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane.”
The courts of other states have not interpreted this uniform traffic provision uniformly.
See Rowe v. State,
363 Md 424,