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Title: New ignition lock laws aim to foil drunk drivers
Source:
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URL Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102 ... i_legislation_ignition_locks_4
Published: Jan 2, 2009
Author: MICHAEL TARM
Post Date: 2009-01-02 14:59:31 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 1466
Comments: 150
CHICAGO – Motorists convicted of driving drunk will have to install breath-monitoring gadgets in their cars under new laws taking effect in six states this week. The ignition interlocks prevent engines from starting until drivers blow into the alcohol detectors to prove they're sober. Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska and Washington state began Jan. 1 requiring the devices for all motorists convicted of first-time drunken driving. South Carolina began requiring them for repeat offenders. Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been conducting a nationwide campaign to mandate ignition locks for anyone convicted of drunken driving, claiming doing so would save thousands of lives. But critics say interlocks could lead to measures that restrict alcohol policies too much. Users must pay for the fist-sized devices, which in Illinois cost around $80 to install on dashboards and $80 a month to rent; there's also a $30 monthly state fee. And they require periodic retesting while the car is running. "It's amazingly inconvenient," said David Malham, of the Illinois chapter of MADD. "But the flip side of the inconvenience is death." Other states with similar laws include New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana. Most other states give judges the option of forcing convicted drunk drivers to use the devices. In practice though, they are rarely ordered unless laws mandate them, according to MADD. Until now, that's been true in Illinois, said MADD national CEO Chuck Hurley. "Illinois has excellent law enforcement," he said. "But the judicial system leaks like a sieve. This law will change the catch and release system to one where people are at least caught and tagged." In Illinois, the interlocks are mandated only for the five to 11 months licenses are suspended with a first DUI. Drivers can opt not to install them, but then would be banned from driving during the suspension period. Motorists in Colorado get a similar choice — install the devices or get a longer suspension. The law taking effect in Washington state actually relaxes penalties on drunk drivers, allowing them to avoid a previously mandatory license suspension by getting an interlock. The bill's author, Rep. Roger Goodman, said too many motorists were driving with suspended licenses. Motorists could try to skirt the devices by, say, having someone else blow into the detector or driving someone else's car. But if caught trying to circumvent the interlocks, they could go to jail. Within a year, up to 30,000 first-time offenders in Illinois could be using them, state officials estimate. New Mexico was the first state to mandate the devices in 2005. Since then, according to MADD, that state has seen its drunk-driving deaths fall 20 percent. Hurley said other states could see the same percentage decline within a few years. DUI deaths nationally have plummeted to around 15,000 from around 30,000 annually in the early 1980s. Malham, who supports the technology, said in the future even more advanced technology will enable cars to effectively sniff car cabins, scan faces and eyes of drivers or even test sweat on steering wheels to assess sobriety before engines start. Not everyone is as enthusiastic. One of the staunchest critics of interlock laws for first-time offenders is the Washington-based American Beverage Institute, a trade association representing restaurants and retailers. ABI managing director Sarah Longwell said the group backs interlock laws targeting repeat offenders and those arrested with high blood-alcohol levels. But she said laws advocated by MADD don't allow judges to distinguish between those who have a few drinks and go just over the 0.08 blood-alcohol legal limit and those who go way over. "We want sensible alcohol policies," she said. "We want 10 people to be able to come in and have one drink and not one person to come in and have 10." She said current interlock laws could lead to more draconian measures. "We foresee is a country in which you're no longer able to have a glass of wine, drink a beer at a ball game or enjoy a champagne toast at a wedding," she said. "There will be a de facto zero tolerance policy imposed on people by their cars." She argued that MADD puts too much emphasis on links between alcohol and traffic deaths, giving too little regard to the roles excessive speed and driver cell-phone use in deadly accidents. Proponents of interlock laws say studies back their approach. They cite a 2008 study by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation that found interlock devices in New Mexico helped decrease repeat offenses by approximately two-thirds. MADD also points to figures showing one-third of all drunk drivers have a prior DUI conviction. The American Beverage Institute questions studies cited by advocates, saying they other factors, like education programs, also account for the declines. Malham concedes Illinois' new law isn't perfect. For one, it only applies to drivers during relatively short license-suspension periods. "But perfection can't be the enemy of the good, to quote (18th century philosopher) Voltaire," he said. "I'd like to see more teeth in the law in the future. But this is a start."
Poster Comment: With all the car rentals, they'll also have to note the conviction on a persons drivers license. This will mean whenever a person uses their lic. for ID (as in a new job, etc) the conviction will appear.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 127.
#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
I'm in Washington State. Here, you can quite literally blow a .000 and STILL get arrested for drunk driving. No lie. It's just insane. So, when I do (rarely) go out, all I order to drink is soda or maybe orange juice. I'm not willing to pay out over $10,000 in fines and fees just because some cop decided that since I had one drink two hours ago, that I am therefore "driving drunk".
Maybe it's me, but I don't trust police breathalyzers and the portable blood testing centers located at DUI road blocks. Yep, they now have portable blood testing stations at these road blocks. I'm not making excuses for someone drunk and driving, but these methods aren't always accurate, nor are the lab tech always competent.
i agree. i don't know what is the best approach for dealing with DUI offenders.
chris, many folks who drink to excess and drive recklessly do so because the govt and the anti marijuana lobby, THE PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG FREE AMERICA (the alcohol and tobacco industries) insist that we can only self medicate with highly dangerous alcohol spirits. If folks could lawfully grow, buy and smoke fine quality reefa those who drove would go slowly and carefully, not excessively fast (for their reflexes) while menacing all others around them. Big liquor and tobacco are worried about their profits of course, so, the car crashes must continue. This industry influence combined with the compound stress of creeping govt control over our lives can only magnify the problem. If reefa was decrim'ed they'd drive like orientals trying to merge into freeway rush hour traffic. (Instead of speeding up to merge more "intoxicated" motorists may stop, causing major interruptions to traffic flow-irritating but not nearly as dangerous as drunks on the road)
Here in Indiana it's against the law to sell alcohol on Sunday except in bars and restaraunts - no carry out. Unless I stock up, which I rarely do as alcohol is not a necessity, in order to get a drink on Sunday I have to get in my car, drive to a bar, consume any booze I may want, and then drive home. Does this law make any sense, except to lounge owners?
#132. To: Dakmar (#127)
(Edited)
Does this law make any sense, except to lounge owners? Of course not. My home of VA had the strictest blue laws of all when I was a kid. Every store including 7-11s had a canvas blanket that they pulled down over toothpaste and all of those drug store items on Sunday, as well as forbidding the purchase of beer and wine. (hard liquor is purchased at state stores from a govt employee who wears a badge and who assesses the character of each sinner who buys "The Devil's Elixer") When VA experimented with liquor by the drink back in the 70's prior to legalization (when only beer and wine were available in bars and restaurants) all patrons had to be seated and the wait staff had to move the drink if customers chose to switch tables. No, you couldn't stand up and you couldn't sit on the floor. The Babtists thought that GAWD would be glorified if those who drank hard likka were seated half way in between.... Presumably the heart filled up with lust much more quickly if wimmen could stand and move graciously around intoxicated men....and every night would be the Devil's holiday in The Bible Belt. Of course the cab drivers I knew had a lucrative Sunday business selling otherwise legal whiskey by the half or whole pint. They had a car that they moved to a diff location every week and all of the cabbies had a trunk key. If a sailor asked for a bottle the cabbie would drive within a couple of blocks of the "rolling warehouse" and while the customers waited he'd hoof around the corner and pop the trunk to get the liquor which was always the cheapest rotgut, which they then resold at 100% markup. The Norfolk Police Vice and Taxi Squads never busted that operation the whole time it existed! And even a snitch sailor could not ID the vehicle because the cabbie never let the customers see it. (also to keep the squids and marines from breaking in and stealing the goods) Most folks think of bootlegging as the sale of unbonded whiskey and that is true except in Sunday blue law states which created a demand for bonded liquor and beer...on The Lord's day. Prohibitionists never learn, do they?
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#7. To: Elliott Jackalope, chriatine, mark kamala, all (#1)
#10. To: Jethro Tull (#7)
Yep, they now have portable blood testing stations at these road blocks. I'm not making excuses for someone drunk and driving, but these methods aren't always accurate, nor are the lab tech always competent.
#90. To: christine, Jethro Tull, James Deffenbach (#10)
i agree. i don't know what is the best approach for dealing with DUI offenders.
#127. To: HOUNDDAWG (#90)
many folks who drink to excess and drive recklessly do so because the govt and the anti marijuana lobby, THE PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG FREE AMERICA (the alcohol and tobacco industries) insist that we can only self medicate with highly dangerous alcohol spirits.
Replies to Comment # 127. Here in Indiana it's against the law to sell alcohol on Sunday except in bars and restaraunts - no carry out. Unless I stock up, which I rarely do as alcohol is not a necessity, in order to get a drink on Sunday I have to get in my car, drive to a bar, consume any booze I may want, and then drive home.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 127.