The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
013
:
DRUNKEN DRIVING
(Cite as: 23 V.S.A. § 1204)
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§ 1204. Permissive inferences
(a) Upon the trial of any civil or criminal action or proceeding arising out of acts alleged
to have been committed by a person while operating, attempting to operate, or in actual
physical control of a vehicle on a highway, the person’s alcohol concentration shall
give rise to the following permissive inferences:
(1) If the person’s alcohol concentration at that time was less than 0.08, such fact shall
not give rise to any presumption or permissive inference that the person was or was
not under the influence of alcohol, but such fact may be considered with other competent
evidence in determining whether the person was under the influence of alcohol.
(2) If the person’s alcohol concentration at that time was 0.08 or more, it shall be a
permissive inference that the person was under the influence of alcohol in violation
of subdivision 1201(a)(2) or (3) of this title.
(3) If the person’s alcohol concentration at any time within two hours of the alleged
offense was 0.10 or more, it shall be a permissive inference that the person was under
the influence of alcohol in violation of subdivision 1201(a)(2) or (3) of this title.
(b) The foregoing provisions shall not be construed as limiting the introduction of any
other competent evidence bearing upon the question whether the person was under the
influence of alcohol or under the combined influence of alcohol and another drug nor
shall they be construed as requiring that evidence of the amount of alcohol or drug
in the person’s blood, breath, urine, or saliva must be presented. (Added 1969, No. 267 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; amended 1973, No. 79, § 4, eff. May 23, 1973; 1981, No. 103, § 5; 1987, No. 244 (Adj. Sess.); 1991, No. 55, § 5; 2017, No. 83, § 161(4); 2019, No. 164 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. Oct. 7, 2020.)