The appellant, Omar Rodriguez, who speaks Spanish and not English, appeals from his conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol. He contends, first, that the results of his blood-alcohol tests should have been suppressed because OCGA § 24-9-103, which provides that police officers must attempt to obtain a qualified interpreter to inform a hearing impaired person of his implied consent warnings, violates equal protection since it does not provide that an officer must attempt to obtain an interpreter for people who do not speak English. Rodriguez also contends that OCGA § 40-5-67.11 and § 40-6-392 a 3,2 as interpreted in Tosar v. State,3 violate equal protection since non-English-speaking defendants, unlike English-speaking defendants, do not have their implied consent notice read to them in a language that they can understand. Finally, Rodriguez contends that due process requires that a driver be read his implied consent notice in his native language so that he is meaningfully advised of the rights and can exercise those rights in a meaningful fashion. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that these contentions are without merit, and we therefore affirm Rodriguez’s conviction.
1. OCGA § 24-9-103 provides that when an officer takes a hearing impaired person into custody, the officer must request a qualified interpreter to assist the hearing impaired person, and that “no interrogation, warning, informing of rights, taking of statements, or other investigatory procedures shall be undertaken until a qualified interpreter has been provided.”4 If an interpreter is not available within one hour, the officer may then question and take a statement from the hearing impaired person.5 This statute applies to hearing impaired persons arrested for driving under the influence and thus requires the officer to attempt to find an interpreter to convey the appropriate implied consent warning to the hearing impaired person through an interpreter.6 As Rodriquez correctly points out, the statute provides for no such accommodation for non-English-speaking persons arrested for DUI. We conclude, however, that the disparate treatment does not violate equal protection.
