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Whenever the implied consent law can be invoked during the arrest process, the person’s driver’s license can be withdrawn immediately following any test failure or test refusal. The person is given a seven-day temporary license to drive before the withdrawal becomes effective. The period of license withdrawal is as follows:

90 days for a person with no qualified prior impaired driving incident within the past ten years and no other aggravating factor was present in the current incident (reducible to 30 days upon DWI conviction for a first time offender)

six months, if violator is under age 21

180 days, if person has had a qualified prior impaired driving incident within ten years

double the applicable period above, if the person was arrested with an alcohol concentration of .20 or more or while having a child under age 16 in the vehicle

one year, if the person refused to submit to the chemical test of blood, breath, or urine (reducible to 90 days upon DWI conviction for a first-time violation)

cancelled and denied indefinitely as inimical to public safety, pending treatment and rehabilitation for a third or more impaired driving incident within a ten-year period. The person may appeal the administrative license revocation, either administratively to DPS and/or judicially through the court.

2) Administrative License Plate Impoundment

A plate impoundment violation is an impaired driving violation involving an aggravating factor, such as any of the following:

occurring within ten years of a qualified prior impaired driving violation by that person

involving an alcohol concentration of .20 or more

having a child under age 16 present in the vehicle

occurring while the person’s license has been cancelled for the person being inimical to public safety

Plate impoundment applies to:

the vehicle used in the plate impoundment violation,

as well as any vehicle owned, registered, or leased in the name of the violator, whether alone or jointly.

A plate impoundment order is issued by the arresting officer at the time of arrest and is effective immediately. The officer also seizes the plates and issues a temporary vehicle permit valid for seven days (or 45 days if the violator is not the owner).

The minimum term of plate impoundment is one year, during which time the violator may not drive any motor vehicle unless the vehicle displays specially coded plates and the person has been validly relicensed to drive. The violator is also subject to certain restrictions when selling or acquiring a vehicle during the impoundment period.

Specially coded license plates—signifying to law enforcement that the regular plates have been impounded for an impaired driving violation—may be issued for the vehicle(s), provided that:

the violator has a properly licensed substitute driver;

a member of the violator’s household is validly licensed;

the violator has been validly relicensed; or

the owner is not the violator and is validly licensed.

It is a crime for a driver whose plates have been impounded to attempt to evade the plate impoundment law in certain specified ways, or for another person to enable such evasion.

As with the driver’s license withdrawal sanction, a person incurring license plate impoundment may appeal this sanction both administratively and/or judicially through the court.