MADD is hogging the road

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Coolio

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http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20090702_MADD_is_hogging_the_road.html

MADD is hogging the road
Requiring that even light drinkers use breathalyzers in their cars is going too far.

By Sarah Longwell

Last week, the House transportation committee unveiled the details of a six-year, $450 billion highway bill. Buried within is a controversial sentencing requirement for low-level, first-time drunken-driving offenders: ignition interlocks.

These in-car breathalyzers prevent vehicles from starting if a driver's breath registers above a preset blood-alcohol concentration. Because they are so expensive, intrusive, and prone to technical failures, this penalty has typically been reserved for the most extreme offenders.

If the bill passes in its current form, Mothers Against Drunk Driving will be one step closer to its goal of prohibiting responsible adults from having a glass of wine with dinner before driving home.

The hospitality industry has already been working with traffic-safety advocates to require ignition interlocks for repeat offenders caught with high blood-alcohol concentrations. We've succeeded in 27 states. But under the new transportation bill, those states will be penalized if they do not impose the devices on first-time offenders - even those just one sip over the legal limit.

A 120-pound woman can reach the legal limit of 0.08 percent after two 6-ounce glasses of wine in a two-hour period. Under this proposed mandate, if such a woman drives, she could be punished with an interlock device - for behavior that is, according to several studies, no more dangerous than driving while talking on a hands-free cell phone.

Mandating ignition interlocks for all drunken-driving offenders is a one-size-fits-all approach, inflicting the same punishment on that woman and the hardcore abusers who cause the vast majority of alcohol-related fatalities. It eliminates a judge's ability to treat different offenders differently, and America's criminal-justice system has a terrible record with mandatory minimum sentences.

Most state legislatures have already made it clear that they favor judicial discretion, rejecting mandates for low-blood-alcohol, first-time offenders, or passing ignition-interlock bills that target high-blood-alcohol, repeat offenders. Their decisions are supported by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics showing that most alcohol-related fatalities involve offenders at more than twice the legal limit.

But, under pressure from MADD, the House is poised to force those legislatures to change their laws. To those who recall the debate over lowering the legal limit from 0.10 to 0.08 percent, it's a familiar scenario.

In 1998, Congress approved highway-funding sanctions for states that would not lower their limits after MADD insisted that doing so would save thousands of lives. It didn't: In 2007, the number of alcohol-related fatalities was roughly the same as 10 years earlier.

In 2006, MADD projected that ignition-interlock technology - set to prevent driving at blood-alcohol levels as low as 0.02 percent - could be "standard equipment" for all American vehicles within 10 years. Three years later, we are already on the verge of requiring the devices even for marginal offenders.

If MADD's latest push goes forward unabated, it won't be long until your car is forbidding you from driving home after a champagne toast at a wedding or a beer at a baseball game.

Sarah Longwell is the managing director of the Washington-based American Beverage Institute, a restaurant trade association. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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I'm sure GM would love using their funds for this technology, their doing so well financially right now. The DIY types like myself would just modify to ONLY let you drive after having a certain BAC.

I hope we never see cathers that only unlock the ignition after checking your urine.
 
lol wow. I mean could this be any farther in the wrong direction when it comes to stopping drunk driving deaths.

I mean holy shit, it said 450 billion!?!??

the world economy is failing and they still are in this punishment equals prevention thought process, which couldn't be worse for everyones wallet

Huaca!! Post some awesomeness about how it should be like you always do ~~
 
JimJonesBallin said:
all this will do is make plugging alcohol one step closer to reasonable
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Even if you shoved it up your ass colonic style...once it passes into the bloodstream it will still read on a breathalyzer. The lungs transfer it to the air you breath just like before. Same way vaporized THC gets into your body....
 
I guarantee you I have almost crashed or driven worse while tired or talking on the phone / texting than after three beers. I honestly don't swerve or do anything wrong on the road unless at least 6 drinks are in me. But I don't play the dui game. I don't drive even after 1 anymore
 
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