Seems simple enough to me. If they think it’s not safe having to blow into these things, they can just forfeit their licenses altogether. Don’t like it? Should have thought of that before you got that 4th DUI. Problem solved.
Yes, let’s blame the lawyers and the drunk drivers, rather than discuss the merits of whether or not the interlock device is flawed even if well intentioned. :rolleyes:
Seems to me that there ought to be a better failure mechanism than having the car shutdown, such off the top of my head an on-star type thing sending a signal to the police or to 911.
Interlocks can be designed to work in both directions. It should be a trivial matter to design the periodic retest so that it will not operate unless the vehicle is in “Park” (or some manual-transmission equivalent, such as “neutral,” with the emergency brake set).
The fact that Liberal has chosen to participate in this thread.
Why use the interlock devices? Why not just bar these irresposible, dangerous folks from driving?
BTW, I think the rationale behind having to blow in it every so often is that drunks often drink while they are driving. At least, I did.
Since the Dope is about fighting ignorance, I did some research on these devices. I was surprised to learn how many companies make them! The second thought was-holy crap-that means there is a helluva market for these things!
Apparently the Government has been working on this since the 1980’s-the National Highway Transportation Safety Association has a standard for what these devices should be capable of, and they have an official Guvmint acronym (of course): BAIID. Blood Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device.
Depending upon where you live, the devices are set up to restrict and monitor your operating activity. A number of states have accepted these products, and of course, no two have the same piece of legislation-too damned simple.
They all seem to have these features:[ul]
[li]Power interrupt logging[/li][li]Backup data retention[/li][li]Sample before start authorization[/li][li]Regular or random rolling retest[/li][li]Emergency stall restart[/li][li]Restrictable hours of operation[/li][li]Circumvention alarm-horn or horn and flashing lights[/li][/ul]
The devices themselves are about the size of a cellphone, so although annoying to have to use while driving, I’m happy that they don’t just shut the car off. If you fail a rolling retest, the horn sounds, and once you shut the car off, it locks out for a predetermined period of time.
They also require humming, along with suck and blow (no-I’m not going there) on the sample tube to preclude bogus samples.
Users must return to an authorized service facility for regular recalibration and download of the stored data, which is when they find out if you’ve been trying to beat the device.
Yes the government can take away the driving priviledges of DUI offenders, but unfortunatly that does not stop them from getting behind the wheel of a car. In Nevada, if you are pulled over and arrested for DUI/DWI, your license is suspended automatically for 6 months, repeat offenders their license is revoked permantly with mandatory jail time.
DL revocation unfortunatly does not keep repeat offenders off the road. There plenty of auto accidents (no I don’t have specific numbers) here where the accident causer was drunk and was driving under a suspended/revoked license.
It would be nice if the drunks would stay off the road and their place in car should be only in a passenger seat!
I am agreeing with you, it would be nice for people not to have to fear the drunk driver. I worry about it alot here because this is Las Vegas and booze is available 24/7/365.
I don’t think little breathalizer systems in cars that require testing while in motion are going to keep people from driving drunk or drinking and driving. I think they are more of a distraction that a deterrant. I think there just needs to be stricter enforcement of laws already in place rather than “gimmicky techno gadget” style enforcement.
OK I have no idea how old this thread is and I’m BRAND new here but I saw this and I am NOT starting a flame just a few facts:
I was born, raised, “from” the E. coast. The laws are DIFFERENT there. I moved to California. ONE “malt” and you are LEGALLY drunk!!! Before I got a STEP further let me get it out now:
DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE!!!
But… what is legally “drunk”? Everyone’s body is different. I passed the field. I failed the breath/AND/needle-to-the-arm Blood test by THEIR state standards. i didn’t know…
moving on.. took it like “a man”.,… but my hired PAYED FOR lawyer is a cali idiot so I got “screwed” and allacuted to a few things I didn’t understand, one of which the breathalizer interlock device.
Let me tell you about this thing… cologne sets it off. MOUTHWASH sets it off. It’s the NEW scarlet letter!
Facts:
FIRST TIME offender- if it had been in MY state, I would not have been “drunk”.
MOVING ON:
It’s a MONEY MAKING factory set up by MADD and it’s affiliates. The road to hell, right?
LASTLY: this thing is VERY DANGEROUS to drive with and HERE’s why in three simple reasons:
-
The device “aborts” often if you don’t blow HARD AND LONG- we’re talking a MIN. of 6-7 seconds and UP TO 10 seconds of HARD breath. I smoke cigs. OK, let’s ASSUME that’s my fault, too, moving ON:
-
The aborts are not fails or passes; they are just aborts; it takes time to reset; you have to do it WHEN THE CAR STARTS, then randomly in 5-10 minutes, then randomly in 20-40 minute increments from there on in. If you take medication like I do (LEGALLY prescribed), it can cause a fail. OK so I take meds, IT’s ALL MY FAULT!!! here’s my final reason why this damn thing is a death trap:
REASON #3 and my PROOF: it is NOT hands free! The beeps are not very loud so you really can’t listen to radio and the glare (any Cali rez. knows this) … it’s SUNNY- the L.E.D’s do NOT show up if there’s a HINT of sun out there, so you either have to “cup” the device to see if the light is on, or you have to “listen” for the beep, which means usually holding it as I drive. There is NOTHING hands=-free about the “rolling retests” because, ok, perfect example, HEAVY but moving traffic on the cali-overloaded-highways, and idiots swerving in and out, and bikers riding between the lanes (legal in this state), you’re trying to do ALL This SH&+ AND pull over 3-to-SEVEN lanes within the “random” 2-3 1/2 minutes it GIVES you to “blow” before your horns and lights go crazy!!! So you do it in stop-and-go traffic because you CANNOT get “over” in the specified time, so you do it there, all the while trying to read a “LED” light and/or LISTEN for a sound, all the time. Yeah, it’s a deterrent in that I’m afraid to drive my car!!! and how about this “jerry’s final thought”:?
What would YOU DO if a car started going crazy, (in heavy 7 lane + carpool lane traffic)- in other words, you’re driving along, all happy and cozy, and this car, in GRID LOCK starts honking crazy, and every light on the d@mn car blinking this way and that… wouldn’t you be the LEAST bit curious?!? So.. yeah, you’re either blowing for 6-10 seconds and HOPING the dude/dude-ette in front of you doesn’t brake slam OR you’re the “lookie-loo” that SEES the idiot (me) with horns and sirens and lights a blazin’ cuz’ I couldn’t “legally” get over 6 1/5 to 7 lanes in THICK cali traffic within a few minutes?!?
Come on, see it for what it is.. .a hundred bux a month to the companies (you can only use certain ones, remember that!!! LOL!!! and a hundred bux a month to uncle s(l)am. so there it is.
I am, in dragon-slayer sense, DONE with this particular topic- to the hilt.
The proof? : 
-○ƒin○-
Do you have an inability to read and understand dates?
The dates on all previous posts are quite clearly listed as 2004. If that’s the level of your investigative ability and attention to detail, i’m not sure how convincing the rest of your argument is likely to be.
Wow, that one Liberal post was like a speedbump, since I hadn’t immediately noticed the dates.
For me, it was the OP.
Because danceswithcats not only hasn’t posted for a long time, he actually died about two and a half years ago.
Damn, are you drunk right now?:rolleyes:
I’m sorry. I pulled a “n00b” and didn’t read the whole thread before I responded. My bad. 
My WORDS may explain, but this man’s various list (in California it’s six companies, and only THREE service my area, and only TWO would take me- remember- NO FELON HERE! First time offender.)
Either way, if the “corporation list” that was sum-mated above does not prove some manner of distrust between “corporate socialism” and “government-based capitalistic symbiosis” then I do not know what does.
PEACE!
Yikes. I thought the name sounded familiar, but it didn’t immediately click.
The problem with zombies. I bet a lot of people are scratching their heads, going “who is This Year’s Model?”
And I think the majority of US states classify 0.08% as arrestable. Some may get you anyway if you’re >0% and less than 0.08% because you’re “impaired.”
Some mouthwash has alcohol in it. When using a “real” breathalyzer, you are supposed to not have had a drink in 30 minutes or so, or the numbers will be inaccurately high. Mints supposedly, too.
And stop drinking, or have a drink, whichever will reduce the usage of so many capitals.
If they’re SOOO unsafe, we could take the interlocks off the market and just revoke drivers’ licenses for 12 months after a DUI conviction. Sounds like a win-win to me.
I wasn’t able to find a link, but I remember reading years ago about a man who took his five year old along when he went to the bar so she could blow into the interlock when they came home. She was killed when he ran into another car. (He survived.) This wasn’t an urban legend, because the article was about his conviction.
Because license revokation keeps people from driving. :dubious: Silly girl.
I’ve long wished people could be chipped. Put a reader in the car that positively identifies the driver (heck, the occupants too), info is sent to The Government who decides whether the person is eligible to drive that class of vehicle, the car is told whether or not to allow the driver to start & drive away. DUI offenders no longer have to worry about blowing to drive, and The Government no longer has to worry about blowers borrowing someone else’s car–their right, and ability, to drive has been suspended.
But the paranoid 1984 types will always be a barrier to such simple and effective safety measures. Chickenshits.
Heh. Wonder how long it would take Anonymous to hack the system and flag every government official as a DUI offender. And how long it would take that to get sorted out.
Any thread with Q.E.D. in it does it for me.