…ON DRUNK DRIVERS: California program tests ignition-locking devices on carsAuthor(s): Paul MarcotteSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 73, No. 2 (FEBRUARY 1, 1987), p. 21Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20759128 .

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... ON PRUNK DRIVERS California program tests ignition-locking devices on cars

A new California law will test whether drunken drivers may be kept off the road by using breath analyzers and ignition locking devices to pre vent them from starting their cars.

The three-year California pilot program, the Farr-Davis Driver Safety Act of 1986, empowers judges to re quire convicted drunken drivers to in stall ignition interlock devices in their vehicles as a condition of probation.

The driver would have to blow into a breath analyzer before starting the car. In California, the vehicle won't start if the analyzer measures more than .025 percent blood-alcohol con tent. The legal limit is .10 in most

states.

The California pilot program scheduled to start this month is lim ited to four counties. "We're some

what confident of the technology, but we want to see how it works on a lim ited basis before we would go statewide with the program," said John Boesel, a legislative aide to As semblyman Sam Farr, one of the law's sponsors. He said several companies are interested in supplying the igni tion interlock devices.

The California law also makes it a misdemeanor for a person whose li cense has been restricted to circum vent the device by tampering with it

or having someone else blow into the breath analyzer. It is illegal for anyone to knowingly lend or lease a car not equipped with the device to someone whose driving privileges have been restricted.

California's Office of Traffic Safety is responsible for monitoring the pilot program and keeping statis tics on repeat offender rates.

A few judges in Maryland, Michi gan and Ohio also have begun order ing convicted drunken drivers to in stall ignition interlock devices.

Maryland District Court Judge Larry Lamson of Prince Frederick County said he's ordered about 60 drivers to install the devices since last May, and none have been rearrested for drunken driving.

One manufacturer of ignition in terlock devices is Guardian Interlock Systems, Inc., a Denver, Colo., com

pany which leases the devices for $456 a year, according to company spokesman Karen Pearson. She said the devices are becoming increasingly

more sophisticated to prevent drivers from circumventing them.

The company's newest model re quires a driver to follow a previously learned series of timed pauses when blowing into the breath analyzer. This is intended to prevent an intoxicated driver from teaching someone else the code. If the timed pauses aren't fol lowed correctly, the car won't start for an hour, said Pearson.

The interlock system registers a signal within the device if someone tampers with it. It will also turn off an idling car after a specified time, dis couraging drivers from leaving the car idling while they hoist a few in a bar.

Critics of the system have sug gested that the devices unfairly pena lize other family members who use the car.

But Farr said current penalties against drunken driving are ineffec tive. The new California law is merely another tool judges can use, he said. "This law would allow someone to use their car regularly while not endan gering others," he said.

?Paul Manrcntte

A Kip Fuller, president of Guardian Interlock, demonstrates its anti-DWI device.

-?-_I

ABA JOURNAL / FEBRUARY 1, 1987 21

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