New Breathalyser
31-Dec-2002, 04:16 PM
#1
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New Breathalyser
A new way of curbing repeat DUI offenders.
Anyone who was convicted of impaired driving within the past year, served the one-year mandatory licence suspension and wants to get back behind the wheel will have to buy an alcohol-detecting device.
Those who opt not to purchase the $1,600 "ignition interlock system" will have to wait another year before driving.
Once the device is installed, offenders will not be able to start their car without blowing into the device. It is calibrated to start the car only if the driver's blood-alcohol content is below 0.02, several points below the 0.08 legal limit.
"The idea is to keep the impaired person off the road, and it does that very, very well," said Doug Beirness, vice-president of research at the Traffic Injury Research Foundation.
The interlock system also requires the driver to give breath samples at pre-set intervals while the engine is running. This makes it more difficult for the driver to ask a passenger to blow into it.
And most people, said Ian Marples, president of Guardian Interlock Systems Corp., which provides the devices, would not give a sample for a drunken friend. Children are also not candidates for samples as the system requires a breath only an adult could give.
"The system requires too much air under too much pressure for a child to be able to do it," Marples said.
The randomized re-testing is no more dangerous while driving than taking a sip of coffee, Marples said. A beeper sounds to tell the driver to provide a sample, who then has three minutes to give it. If he or she fails to do it in that time period, or if the sample shows a blood-alcohol level that exceeds the limit, the device will sound an alarm and the driver must pull over and shut off the car.
Every mishap is recorded, and if the device fails, there is an automatic recall to the shop for a check. The device is noted on an offender's driver's licence, so police officers can check for it. It must also be used by everyone else who drives the offender's car.
"We like the program because it changes behaviours around drinking and driving," said Andrew Murie, national executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "It's not punishment, it's rehabilitation."
Although other jurisdictions in Canada have had variations of the program for some time, the Ontario program is distinct because it is mandatory. Some 16,000 Ontario drivers are convicted of drinking and driving every year. Murie said many of them will opt for interlock, in spite of the high cost.
Anyone who was convicted of impaired driving within the past year, served the one-year mandatory licence suspension and wants to get back behind the wheel will have to buy an alcohol-detecting device.
Those who opt not to purchase the $1,600 "ignition interlock system" will have to wait another year before driving.
Once the device is installed, offenders will not be able to start their car without blowing into the device. It is calibrated to start the car only if the driver's blood-alcohol content is below 0.02, several points below the 0.08 legal limit.
"The idea is to keep the impaired person off the road, and it does that very, very well," said Doug Beirness, vice-president of research at the Traffic Injury Research Foundation.
The interlock system also requires the driver to give breath samples at pre-set intervals while the engine is running. This makes it more difficult for the driver to ask a passenger to blow into it.
And most people, said Ian Marples, president of Guardian Interlock Systems Corp., which provides the devices, would not give a sample for a drunken friend. Children are also not candidates for samples as the system requires a breath only an adult could give.
"The system requires too much air under too much pressure for a child to be able to do it," Marples said.
The randomized re-testing is no more dangerous while driving than taking a sip of coffee, Marples said. A beeper sounds to tell the driver to provide a sample, who then has three minutes to give it. If he or she fails to do it in that time period, or if the sample shows a blood-alcohol level that exceeds the limit, the device will sound an alarm and the driver must pull over and shut off the car.
Every mishap is recorded, and if the device fails, there is an automatic recall to the shop for a check. The device is noted on an offender's driver's licence, so police officers can check for it. It must also be used by everyone else who drives the offender's car.
"We like the program because it changes behaviours around drinking and driving," said Andrew Murie, national executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "It's not punishment, it's rehabilitation."
Although other jurisdictions in Canada have had variations of the program for some time, the Ontario program is distinct because it is mandatory. Some 16,000 Ontario drivers are convicted of drinking and driving every year. Murie said many of them will opt for interlock, in spite of the high cost.
01-Jan-2003, 12:14 AM
#8
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Originally posted by Si Veloz
i kinda find it shitty that it'll start with .02
why not make it 0 only??
isn't the whole idea to deter them from doing the d&d again??
what better way then to make it 0 tolerence..
i kinda find it shitty that it'll start with .02
why not make it 0 only??
isn't the whole idea to deter them from doing the d&d again??
what better way then to make it 0 tolerence..
01-Jan-2003, 12:54 PM
#11
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Location: Mississauga
Posts: 972
Regarding the .02 alcohol level...
Isn't it true that some medecines or even Halls contains alcohol to some miniscule degree. Now say the driver has a cold, and takes some cough syrup or whatever. He may now have a BAC of, say .01 (just pulling it out of my ***), and say he had a halls, or some other losenge that contains a small amount of alcohol, would he no longer be able to start the car?
I think that might be a factor why it is .02 limit and not 0?
Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
Matt
Isn't it true that some medecines or even Halls contains alcohol to some miniscule degree. Now say the driver has a cold, and takes some cough syrup or whatever. He may now have a BAC of, say .01 (just pulling it out of my ***), and say he had a halls, or some other losenge that contains a small amount of alcohol, would he no longer be able to start the car?
I think that might be a factor why it is .02 limit and not 0?
Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
Matt
01-Jan-2003, 04:09 PM
#12
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Mississauga
Posts: 13,184
I don't think so, alcohol in a cough syrup or whatever doesn't quite fix anything, and even if there was 0.1% alcohol in a bottle of robitussin or whatever, it would take a HELL of a lot of that stuff to get you up to that limit.... breathalyzers aren't always totally accurate tho, cuz it's based on the assumption that the percentage of alcohol on your breath is the same that's in your blood, which isn't always the fact, but it's cheaper, quicker, and more convienent than a blood test which is the only true way of finding out the actual blood alcohol level......
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