Let me just say that I don’t drink and drive. I’ve seen too many lives negatively impacted from drinking and driving, both from the victims and the drivers side of things.
That being said though, I don’t think that I should have to have a mandatory ignition interlock device in all my vehicles. It’s just another electrical component that would be prone to malfunction, and prevent my car from being drivable.
Well the American Beverage Industry is fighting back against the lobbying MADD is starting on their goal for mandatory ignition interlock devices on all new vehicles, and a de-facto legal drinking limit to any amount of alcohol that is “detectable”.
Press Release here.
No related posts.
.MADD does not want ignition interlock on every car only on cars of convicted DRUNK DRIVERS. They, (MADD) would like to see in the future transparent technology phased into new vehicles that would detect alcohol present in the person operating the car. Although some car companies are working on various concepts there are many social and technological problems before MADD’s goal of stopping drunks, (0.80%BAC) and above from driveling comes to fruition. ABI has taken most of their information out of context to misrepresent most responsible organizations; instead they resort to character assassination without taking responsibility of initially selling the alcohol to the person
I’ve read MADD’s “Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving”, and they do specifically say they want mandatory ignition interlocks on all convicted drunk drivers. They go on to spell out that the goal of their campaign is to eliminate all drunk driving — and they claim they will succeed. The “most promising and potentially effective” tool they plan to employ is a “voluntary”, “non-regulatory” system that allows a vehicle to detect if the driver has alcohol on board, and then stop the driver from driving. They go on to list various means of doing that — breath, transdermal detection, and eye movement (these are all interlock devices).
But if their goal is the complete elimination of drunk driving, the only way that can be accomplished is the eventual mandatory/regulatory requirement for interlock devices on all cars.
Sure it will be gradual. New technologies will be tested and paid for by convicted offenders, then different car companies will start offering things as “options”. Eventually the campaign focus will shift to pointing out that voluntary implementation, and mandatory implementation on convicted drunk drivers, has not been 100% effective, so therefore we have to have 100% implementation on all vehicles.
Eventually when you take you car in to get it smogged, your interlock device will also have to be tested.
It’s not a question of if, it’s only a matter of when this policy shift will occur within MADD’s inner circle. The rank and file are probably not supportive of such a Orwellian measure yet, but eventually they will come around.