Question: If you decide you’re too drunk to drive, is it OK to sleep in your car? – Anonymous, Tacoma

Answer: That depends in part on where your car is. If you stop and pass out in a Taco Bell drive-thru, for example, or on the shoulder of Interstate 5, then no, it’s not OK to sleep in your car.

In those cases, you can be arrested for being “in physical control” of a motor vehicle while intoxicated, an offense that essentially parallels Washington’s driving-while-intoxicated statute.

If you are safely out of traffic, your car isn’t running and the key isn’t in the ignition, you’ll probably be OK, depending on the discretion of the officer.

RCW 46.61.504, Washington’s “Physical control of a vehicle under the influence” statute, says, “No person may be convicted under this section if, prior to being pursued by a law enforcement officer, the person has moved the vehicle safely off the roadway.”

What constitutes “safely off the roadway” and “in physical control” are open to some interpretation, according to Washington State Patrol trooper Guy Gill.

“There’s hundreds of examples, and it boils down to each specific incident,” Gill said. “If I roll up to an intersection and there’s a guy there that’s sat through three green lights, that’s one thing. If I find a guy sleeping it off in his back seat in a shopping mall parking lot where he can’t hurt anybody, that’s something else altogether.”

“In that case,” Gill said, “I think most officers would probably say, ‘Good job for making the right choice.’”

Rob Carson: 253-597-8693 rob.carson@thenewstribune.com