A truck driver who was convicted of two DUIs is prohibited from obtaining a CDL for life, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled.
In 2010, James Snodergaard, 41, received two DUIs while driving his personal vehicle, which he pleaded guilty to.
The Pennsylvania Driver License Bureau suspended Snodergaard’s CDL for life in August 2011.
Snodergaard appealed the ruling, because he claimed the wording of the law was unclear about whether the automatic ban applied if a driver received a DUI while driving his or her own car.
In January 2012, a Monroe County Court agreed with Snodergaard that the law was unclear. The Monroe County Court overturned the suspension and reinstated Snodergaard’s CDL.
The state appealed the Monroe County Court’s ruling with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
“In his opinion, Commonwealth Court Senior Judge James Gardner Colins concluded that the Legislature intends for professional drivers to lose their CDLs, if they are convicted of two DUIs in their work or private vehicles,” PennLive reports.
“Colins concluded that ‘even if the language had not been explicit,’ it is clear from the law that the Legislature intended the CDL ban to be imposed regardless of what type of vehicle a commercial driver was operating when a DUI offense occurred,” PennLive reports.
What do you think of an automatic CDL ban? Do you think this is a fair ruling?