Background
Tyler Brett Brown entered a conditional guilty plea to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm under ORS 166.250, preserving his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. The evidence at issue resulted from a traffic stop for an alleged failure to drive within a lane under ORS 811.370(1)(a).
The officer testified that Brown crossed the lane line by approximately half a tire while making a turn, describing the movement as “cutting a corner.” The state did not dispute that the deviation was brief and minor in its spatial extent, but argued that its location on a multilane urban street near a highway on-ramp created a potential safety risk that prevented the deviation from being treated as de minimis.
The Court’s Holding
The Oregon Court of Appeals held that Brown’s lane departure was “momentary and minor” and therefore did not violate ORS 811.370(1)(a). The court explained that the statute permits such minor deviations and that courts assessing a possible violation consider the deviation itself and whether circumstances made remaining entirely within the lane impracticable—not whether the deviation hypothetically created a safety risk.
Because the observed conduct did not constitute a traffic violation, the officer’s belief that Brown had violated the statute was not objectively reasonable. The officer therefore lacked probable cause to initiate the traffic stop under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, and the trial court should have granted Brown’s motion to suppress. The court reversed and remanded.
Key Takeaways
- A momentary and minor departure from a traffic lane does not violate ORS 811.370(1)(a).
- A hypothetical safety risk arising from the location of a minor lane deviation does not transform that deviation into a statutory violation.
- An officer’s subjective belief that a traffic violation occurred cannot establish probable cause when the observed facts do not objectively constitute a violation.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces the limits on Oregon traffic stops based on slight lane deviations. Even in a busy urban setting, an officer cannot establish probable cause under ORS 811.370 by relying on speculative safety consequences when the driving conduct itself was only momentary and minor.
The opinion is a nonprecedential memorandum opinion under ORAP 10.30 and may be cited only as that rule permits.