Drinking in a parked car. What the Poland's law says?

Delph and others - I am a big fan of that genre which others find particulary tedious - Blues/rock -Hendrix/Cream/ Rory Gallagher/Pinkoes - you get the idea....

Mu question is, the music says on the label to play it loud, and the good people in my area are getting a little tired of Dougpol Mansions rocking all 800 Hendrix CDs that I have.... at all times of the day and night.

My car has a pretty alright 5.1 Dolby system, and I want to park up on Gdynia square sometimes by the sea and crunch it up, with lashings of HopHeads amber ale. Now....

The law in the UK seems to be that I can be as ****** as I like in my car as long as:

1. The engine is off
2. The keys (two sets of...) are behind the rear wheel....

Obviously the keys would be staying there til I lock the doors and head off into the night with (rock loving) hound.
I'm sure of this scheme being kosher and a liar-yer friend says this is not so and I would be busted. Who is closer to the truth?

Interesting question. It seems that the law requires you to have actually driven under the influence, and that being in a parked car while drunk is not an offence by itself. There's an explanation here - infor.pl/prawo/wykroczenia/charakterystyka-wykroczen/685586,Prowadzenie-pojazdu-pod-wplywem-alkoholu.html

Whether or not you'd want to risk it is another question - I wouldn't trust the police in any country to not say "oi, you've been drinking and you've got the keys to hand, you've been driving".

Probably the safest bet would be to go and stash the keys somewhere safe nearby, so if the police did turn up, you could quite truthfully point out that you have no means of moving the vehicle and hence you cannot possibly be drink driving.

True enough - especially now that the police are in the pay of our "friends". I was shocked to hear that "Independent" Gdynia council is actually aligned to PIS.

A betrayal.

Maybe I wont risk this in Skwer Kościuszki as it might mean a few hours in the cop shop, depending on whether the police in question "understood" the law or not.

PS Thanks for the response and link:)

The law states...'in charge of a vehicle'...so that if you are sat on the backseat with your girlfriend making whoopee, it would be very difficult for the police to charge you.....

Damn degenerates...

I think the law is that people in the front can't drink as it'll distract the driver, but if you're in the back you're grand.

I know the car wouldn't be running, but I reckon it's the best option.

There is no way I'd take the chance of drinking anywhere in a car, in any country on Earth. The cop brain is hard wired to arrest anyone in charge of a vehicle when over the limit. If Doug really needs to listen to Little Wing at seriously high volume (and I can dig that, man), he could always pull his daughter out of uni, send her out to work, and get those 1000PLN headphones.

Wrong. In the UK you cannot be drunk in a car even while asleep and with no keys, because you are in charge of the vehicle. You don't need keys or an engine to kill people in a car.

AFAIR, intending to drink drive could get you busted - outside the car.

I seem to recall that the law has developed to mean that it's a matter of whether or not you are actually capable of controlling the car, or had recently done so. For instance, falling asleep in the driver's seat with the keys in your pocket is an offence, but if the keys are locked in the boot under the spare wheel and you need to perform considerable acrobatics to get to the keys, then it *might* be a defence as long as you can prove that you had no intention to actually use the vehicle.

Polish law seems to be more clear cut in that it seems there's no such law as being drunk in charge of a vehicle, but only straightforward drink-driving. But it all goes back as to whether one would want to argue the toss with the police on the matter.

Don't you need the keys in the ignition in order to switch that on?

Neither is car needed to kill someone... What's the logic behind that?

Drinking in public places is in Poland illegal, so, paradoxally, drinking in a parked car seems to be "less illegal" than doing it outside.

The regulation (the Act on Upbringing in Sobriety) states:


If the car is parked on the street... it's difficult to say whether drinking in it is legal, or not. But the same holds for both the person sitting behind the wheel and at a passenger seat.

Of course, when a policeman sees that, he will rather not want to discuss with you; he will want to give you a fine ticket, and you can either accept it, or not. If not, then they will take you to court, which will evaluate the situation, whether it was legal, or not (if not, then you pay both the fine and the court costs)...

There is an article on that here:
expresskaszubski.pl/aktualnosci/2011/02/kara-za-picie-w-zaparkowanym-samochodzie

Police cannot confiscate your driving license for drinking in a parked car (so it doesn't violate the regulation on drinking and driving). But in the case described in the article it was so, and the court decided that the police was right, because the guy who drank in a car didn't have any evidence on that he didn't drive that car... And there was a witness claiming that he drank before he came to that parking lot.

Just get the psycho out of the car and say: It's illegal now.

>>>>>Wrong. In the UK you cannot be drunk in a car even while asleep and with no keys, because you are in charge of the vehicle.

That is why if you are inflagrante on the back seat - it would be difficult to prove you were in charge of the vehicle...

Works without keys when I snap the keys out. Strange but true. The car has a meaty battery but 6-7 hours of Rush at full volume drains it. I know that because I had to be pulled out of the forest by a tractor once :(

I think it is going to be asking for trouble playing the sounds and beering it.... pity really, as no-one would be accompanying me as designated driver, because the whole point is to be on your lonesome:)


So does rocking with the hound constitute same? As it were.....


Thanks for all that kpc. It's a serious question, as my gaffe gets little sun in winter and I do like a view and (good) music when supping the amber nectar,

I suppose legislation 2a) would be deemed to put the kybosh on my dastardly scheme?

If you are inside it, you are in charge of it.

Hmm. Perhaps not, if you were in the car at the time. But even if you were outside, the worst they could do is get you on a noise complaint (which is almost certainly a warning to begin with) and drinking in public, which is only a small fine anyway.


No, not quite. Case law seems to suggest that it depends on whether there's real intent to use the vehicle. If you're unconscious on the back seat and the keys are quite clearly stashed away in a very difficult place to access, then it would probably constitute a valid defence. The tricky part would be organising the defence - so you'd need a good lawyer.

Not sure why Plod couldn't use common sense in this case - someone asleep in the back of their car with the keys nowhere near them/the ignition is clearly not a threat to anyone.

There is trouble in the forest, there is trouble with the trees

Solution, Get a cheap caravan, park it up in a nice spot, unhitch the car and drive it around a corner and hide it somewhere, play music watch tv, drink plenty then go to bed.

In the morning fetch car hitch up go home.

But here is a question, If you own a camper van in poland, and drink in it, do the same laws apply as that for a car?

Now there's the rub Dolno. I was thinking of acquiring one of them beasts.

I *think* yes, but I'm not 100% certain. But as the laws require you to have actually driven the vehicle, it seems that they would struggle for a conviction in this case. I'm guessing that if you were caught on the sauce in a public car park, they'd have you - but if you were clearly parked up for the night somewhere that wasn't public, probably not.

Then, no different from a car. A camper van is a powered vehicle.

Dougpo, I was thinking the same thing (getting a mobile home) , I understand you can get cheap second hand ones from Germany, great even in the back garden when the outlaws come to visit.

There is no law about drinking in a parked car in Poland. This is the problem of interpretation, whether you consider the interior of a parked car (which is parked in a public place) as a public place or not. Or rather whether the police does.

By the way, there is also no law on drinking while driving, there is a law on being drunk while driving. This may end up very bad for you. For sure you can loose your driving license.

ok so it seems to be down to being in a public or private place, guess if we have a PF mobile booze up it will have to be in the field in the back of my house, just let me know so I can order more bacon and eggs for the morning.