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Title: New ignition lock laws aim to foil drunk drivers
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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: 1397
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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#47. To: Original_Intent (#46)
In this country, two drinks puts the normal person over the limit...(0.08) Do two drinks make a drunk driver?
I used to drink and I used to drive and I used to drink and drive. I never hurt anything but my car(s). Now I don't drink, I don't drive and I don't drink and drive. Something should be done about drinking and driving. It causes alot of unnecessary injuries and deaths of innocents. I think maybe more severe punishment for injuries or deaths caused by drunk driving might be a better deterrent.
You are sounding like a Bush/Cheney record on skip. Oops, I'm showing my age. A good friend of mine doesn't approve of my smoking cigarettes but we are still friends. His dad died of lung cancer after a long struggle. I should quit smoking, but I haven't. I doubt that my smoking has killed any one. Ever hit a pedestrian while lighting a cigarette? ;-) Also the lung cancer rate for non-smokers, and this would shock the anti-smoking Nazi's into disbelief, is only slightly lower than for smokers. Smoking may increase the risk, but not as much as the hyperbole would lead people to believe. However, that is another issue. Your simile though, like Critter's, fails as an accurate simile to the instance of someone engaging in a VOLUNTARY activity, drinking, who then, while impaired, puts the lives of others at risk by getting behind the wheel of a deadly weapon. When you smoke you risk your own health which, as far as I am concerned, you are free to do. When you get behind the wheel of a car impaired you are putting at risk not just your own life but the lives of others who did not consent to that risk.
""I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
Out here in flyover country they put up roadblocks and ask to see your papers. They put them up in the middle of nowhere, on strategic country roads and highways, normally after 10 p.m. What should be done about drinking and driving, in your opinion?
Or ban cars. Neither of them is the cause of irresponsibility. People choose when and where they drink and if they will need to be traveling or not after doing so. They make that choice while they are sober. If it wasn't alcohol it could just as easily be prescription drugs. I kind of doubt they will be banning prescription drugs anytime soon no matter how many people die from the use of them.
God is always good!
Damn, I knew there was a reason I adopted a new tagline.
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
What is impaired? Two bottles of beer?
You mean, Medicare Part D might not have been the altruistic piece of legislation I've been led to believe in?
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
Have you noticed that the pharma industry is the only that can afford commercial time during prime time? So, you are correct.
No one but yourself. It hasn't literally killed you yet, but it has killed the life you could have had smoke free.
God is always good!
I wonder how many Palistineans I've killed this week just by paying taxes?
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
That was a really cheap stunt-ass question, I apologise for that.
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
What should be done about drinking and driving, in your opinion? Like I said, ' I think maybe more severe punishment for injuries or deaths caused by drunk driving might be a better deterrent.' With emphasis on 'I think', 'maybe' and 'might be'. I don't know, but I can certainly see how someone who was disfigured like the girl in the picture at #49 would agree. You know, police state and all that.
Very funny though.
Would you feel better if I told you she'd been burned in a meth-lab explosion?
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
I can't believe you wrote that.
I'll go with 'no' on that one.
What is impaired? Two bottles of beer? In my case one. I'm a cheap drunk. Two is my limit except under rare circumstance. However, in answer to your question it depends upon how many it takes to reduce your reaction time and affect your judgement. It could very well be 2 beers. My point is that it should not have to cost someone else their life because you couldn't be bothered to behave responsibly. There is nothing that says you have to drive a car after having had a couple of beers. It is an elective activity not a necessity. Alcohol IS an intoxicant. Any significant amount is going to have an affect on any normal person. If you're 6'9" and weigh 300 pounds two beers probably is not going to register. If you're 4'9" and weigh 100 pounds you are likely on the edge of drunk. If you're somewhere in between it is not wholly predictable because body chemistry plays a role. However, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not, after two beers you are not as sharp as you were at no beers. That's why they call it "getting a little buzz on". I do not drive after even one beer without the passage of enough time for the alcohol to metabolize to the point where I am sure I am safe.
""I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
Excellent, always figured you for the free enterprise type. :) Now go get me some revenue, booboo!
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
Crud! I ganked my Yahoo account for this?
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
Now go get me some revenue, booboo! Not really sure what any of that means.
Source? Goobermint studies don't count.
Thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhpppppppppp! Your mother wears combat boots. Na, na, - na, - na-na - na. ""I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
It's a New World Order, I think we'll need speedboats! Rose-bowl floats?
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
She did until she broke her shoulder anyway. Thanks for mentioning that.
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
Yeah, you got me there.
This ****in' Dakmar character's outta control.
Yes, I am. Thanks for noticing. Know what's funny? Fred Mertz talking to White Sands! Seriously!
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
Yes, very funny.
Source? Goobermint studies don't count. ""I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
Okay, you've convinced me.
It depends. How many people were injured or killed as a result of your playing "chicken"?
""I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
Nice people? Nary a one, eh?
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
I was watching Anthony Bordain earlier today, interveiwing Ted Nugent and grilling meat. Nuge cracked me up, asked why Bono wasn't out planting trees.
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
Wow! That's conclusive.
I'm spooked, screw all of you!
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
If only they'd got a bigger vehicle that guard rail would'da hit'em in the groin instead of straight through the skull.
The ultimate effect of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer
Comments (88 - 150) not displayed.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestUnless you are "three sheets to the wind" you are aware..
#48. To: Jethro Tull, all (#0)
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#49. To: All (#48)
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#50. To: Fred Mertz (#43)
However, when one takes an action, voluntarily, which puts the lives at others at risk just how tolerant do we want to be?
#51. To: wudidiz (#48)
Something should be done about drinking and driving.
#52. To: Fred Mertz (#15)
Ban alcohol.
#53. To: wudidiz (#48)
I think maybe more severe punishment for injuries or deaths caused by drunk driving might be a better deterrent.
#54. To: Original_Intent (#50)
When you get behind the wheel of a car impaired you are putting at risk not just your own life but the lives of others who did not consent to that risk.
#55. To: RickyJ (#52)
I kind of doubt they will be banning prescription drugs anytime soon no matter how many people die from the use of them.
#56. To: RickyJ (#52)
I kind of doubt they will be banning prescription drugs anytime soon no matter how many people die from the use of them.
#57. To: Fred Mertz (#43)
I doubt that my smoking has killed any one.
#58. To: Original_Intent (#50)
#59. To: All (#58)
#60. To: Fred Mertz (#51)
(Edited)
Out here in flyover country they put up roadblocks and ask to see your papers. They put them up in the middle of nowhere, on strategic country roads and highways, normally after 10 p.m.
There are roadblocks here too, but maybe not enough, although too much is not so good either of course.
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#61. To: Dakmar (#59)
That was a really cheap stunt-ass question, I apologise for that.
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#62. To: wudidiz (#60)
(Edited)
I can certainly see how someone who was disfigured like the girl in the picture at #49 would agree.
#63. To: wudidiz (#60)
There are roadblocks here too, but maybe not enough...
#64. To: Dakmar (#62)
Would you feel better if I told you she'd burned in a meth-lab explosion?
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#65. To: Fred Mertz (#54)
When you get behind the wheel of a car impaired you are putting at risk not just your own life but the lives of others who did not consent to that risk.
#66. To: wudidiz (#64)
#67. To: Original_Intent (#65)
Alcohol IS an intoxicant. Any significant amount is going to have an affect on any normal person. If you're 6'9" and weigh 300 pounds two beers probably is not going to register. If you're 4'9" and weigh 100 pounds
#68. To: Fred Mertz (#63)
I can't believe you wrote that.
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#69. To: Dakmar (#66)
Excellent, always figured you for the free enterprise type. :)
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#70. To: Original_Intent (#65)
However, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not, after two beers you are not as sharp as you were at no beers.
#71. To: Dakmar (#67)
Crud! I ganked my Yahoo account for this?
#72. To: wudidiz (#69)
Not really sure what any of that means.
#73. To: Original_Intent (#71)
Your mother wears combat boots.
#74. To: Dakmar (#72)
It's a New World Order, I think we'll need speedboats! Rose-bowl floats?
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#75. To: All (#74)
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#76. To: wudidiz, Fred Mertz (#75)
This ****in' Dakmar character's outta control.
#77. To: Dakmar, Fred Mertz (#76)
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#78. To: Fred Mertz (#70)
However, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not, after two beers you are not as sharp as you were at no beers.
#79. To: Original_Intent, Fred Mertz, Dakmar, all (#78)
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#80. To: Original_Intent (#78)
Word categorization and recognition tasks also assess complex cognitive processes. Alcohol decreases performance in word categorization tasks by inducing slower and less accurate responses, whereas in word recognition tasks, alcohol can result in more accurate semantic processing (Maylor et al., 1987) or impaired performance (Williams and Rundell, 1984).
#81. To: Dakmar (#44)
(Edited)
So how fiercely would you prescibe I be punished for acting right inside the limits set by the law?
#82. To: Original_Intent (#81)
(Edited)
It depends. How many people were injured or killed as a result of your playing "chicken"?
#83. To: Original_Intent (#81)
#84. To: Original_Intent (#81)
...in 16 adult participants in both alcohol and placebo conditions. IT (a measure of the early stages of information processing) ...
#85. To: Fred Mertz, Original_Intent (#84)
#86. To: Fred Mertz, Original_Intent, Dakmar (#85)
Wow! That's conclusive.
"It is like a trance. So what can break a trance? The only thing that can break the trance is the light of truth."
~ Canadian Philosopher John McMurtry as he comments on the psychological warfare that has afflicted us all
#87. To: wudidiz (#86)
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