Imagine designating a sober driver and being charged with a DUI anyway after your car gets into a crash. That's what happened to a Pennsylvania man after he refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test. That refusal also led to his driver's license suspension and the loss of his job.

The man knew he would be drinking at a party, so his girlfriend agreed to be his designated driver. On their way home, his car was hit head-on by a driver going the wrong way. In the confusing aftermath, a state police became convinced that it was the man who had been driving, and asked him to take a blood-alcohol test. But he refused, and days later, he discovered the state Department of Transportation had suspended not only his driver's license, but his commercial trucking license. State law mandates an automatic license suspension for a driver who refuses to take the test if a police officer has grounds to demand one.

The man made two unsuccessful appeals, though one judge disagreed with the Commonwealth Court's decision, saying that the purpose of DUI laws is to prevent drunk people from driving, not to punish passengers for refusing a blood-alcohol test. The man could still appeal to the state Supreme Court, but it's not likely to take his case because it lacks a constitutional issue that would change state law.

Although the DUI charge against the man was dismissed at a preliminary hearing, the license suspension issue hinges on whether the state trooper had "reasonable grounds" to suspect the man was driving under the influence. The trooper has said that the man smelled of alcohol, the car was his, and he had a bloody face that seemed to correspond with blood on the driver's side air bag. But the man contends no testing was done to determine whose blood it was, and his attorney says evidence that could have shown his client wasn't driving was "completely ignored."

The judges who dismissed the man's appeals agreed the trooper had grounds to demand the test. But submitting to it likely wouldn't have produced a better outcome for the man. It's unfortunate that in this case, the man was forced to make a choice that would hurt him either way on a night when he was just trying to do the right thing.

Source: PennLive.com, "Passenger's refusal to submit to blood-alcohol test triggers 'collision between law, common sense,' lawyer says," Matt Miller, Dec. 30, 2011