Coming Soon: A Breathalyzer in Every Car?

valence that is just ridiculous speculation... and just a ridiculous way to justify drunk driving in my opinion

Word, another reason I just ride a bike. Although a friend of mine got a CUI (cycling under the influence) a couple years ago.

i am all about safe drivers and people not driving but if we put these locks in all new cars "punish" all drivers for a populace of law breakers. i dont drink and drive myself, and find myself on the otherside of being the driver myself, but if i needed the choice of being responsible and having one beer with dinner then driving home i have it. it comes down to responsible decision making as adults

I’m all for decreasing drunk driving incidents, but I think this is overkill. Many people who get a DUI suffer enough for their mistake and learn their lesson.

People make mistakes and deserve second chances.

I come from the DWI capital of the US where we already require "blow-up cars" for DWI offenders. The breathalyzer is in a position where having a passenger lean over isn't possible. The newer models also do not require anywhere near as much blowing as before, it used to be an asthma test, now a steady breath will do the job.

I'd prefer we save these devices for people who show they need them. It's not cheap to install one and it costs even more to reactivate the car after you trigger it.

On the other side, top story in NM this week is a drunk-driver who drove the wrong way on a freeway and T-boned a car of teenagers going to a party. 3 dead, 1 critically injured, he's fine.

How would one prevent a less-drunk pasenger from leaning over and putting the necessary breath into the starter lock, I wonder?

I don't drink, but I used to manage restaurants that served alcohol. A pattern I saw repeated hundreds of times was the guy who would bring his date in for dinner. He would have somewhere between 4 and 32 drinks, while she had one or MAYBE two...

Then they would go out to the parking lot, climb into his piece-of-shit pickup truck, and HE would be driving (from which we derive the term "macho drunk dipshit"). But you gotta KNOW that if he couldn't get the POS pickup started, he would have her do the breathalyzer if at all possible and then he would take back the wheel (CONTROLLING macho drunk dipshit -- or is that redundant?).

As a courtesy to our guests, I installed a breathalyzer in one of the restaurants I managed. The idea was that they could check to see if they were impaired before leaving. If so, they could pick a more sober member of their party to drive or perhaps call a cab and come back to collect their vehicle the next day.

We provided disposable straws in which to blow that were thrown away after each use -- just in case you were wondering (I remember thinking, "ewwwwwww" when I first saw the device until the sales rep showed me that feature).

But we had to pull it out of the place less than a month after we installed it. The reason? Virtually every night there would be some group of idiots who would sit at the bar and do shots and then blow in the device to see who could get the highest BAC without passing out...and then they would drive off at closing time. I was afraid my breathalyzer was going to kill someone (no good idea goes unpunished in modern America)...

MilchMann: "...you also have to hum at the same time to prevent children from using the device for you apparently. The point here is that it would be discriminate against elderly, people with illnesses, people who have had a lung removed, and generally anyone else who can not blow hard enough and/or hum at the same time to operate the stupid thing."

Not to mention people who use mouth-wash before they're out the door to work. I would have to remove mouth-wash from my morning routine.

Educating children from a younger age that alcohol and driving do not mix is probably a better solution.

would you ride airline if you saw a breathalyser in the cockpit.....?? this begs other questions

I know somebody that has one in his car. He has no lung problems that I know of, and it's really hard for him to blow hard enough in the breathalyzer. And it requires he do that every fifteen or ten minutes, so, really, that would cause him to get in a wreck more than anything. Jeezus.

Driving drunk is stupid... MADD is stupid... and everyone knows someone who has died from a drunk driving accident (sort of)... has anyone actually looked up the statistics on this?
Number of fatalities in 2007, a whopping 15,387... number of people who just peed in there pants because they think that number is to low... countless!!! This number has a trend of declining by the way...
http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html
That is the first one that came up... there might be more "official numbers" but that is pretty close to what they all say, I have looked this up numerous times.

There are approximately 30,000 incorporated cities in the Untied States... so close enough to only half of them had someone killed two years ago... hmmm

Is this something worth subjecting everyone to? No, the answer is no, drunk driving is bad, it should be punished severely and it should be put in the spot light, but to inconvenience the masses, and discriminate against the handicapped to ween out the few is a VERY VERY bad idea.

For those of you who have a twisted since of humor by the way... there is a bumper sticker floating around...

DAMM
Drunks Against Mad Mothers

I have a feeling most people take it off after the third or fourth time they get pulled over, but I have seen it a few times... cracks me up every time too.

A close friend of mine died a month ago in a drunk driving accident. A week before her crash a friend took her keys from her to keep her from driving. There's not always going to be someone there to take the keys. I'm not really fond of this idea either, but I'd prefer it to losing any more friends.

I know we have too many laws. I'm not a fan of more regulations. But I hate drunk driving soooo much. I know so many people who have been killed by drunk drivers or driving drunk themselves. Drunk driving is so pervasive and devastating. There's really no good reason to drive drunk. I'm torn on this one.

this has as much to do with how are cities are built as it does with poor judgment. this kind of thing does not happen so much in europe because they don't have to go 15 miles to get to the "local" bar. there is usually a pub on every street and a lot of them have a children's playground on the premises so that the kids can play while the parents get pissed...err...drunk. and everyone walks home together.

Riiight. So we encourage them to drink, punish them for it, and then force everyone to suffer for it. That's lame.

thanks but no thanks... i am sick and tired of this nanny state BS... just toss dui's on public road side clean up duty for 3 years yard thier licence for life and call it a day.

This is a good thing and should be done all over, am sure everyone would be up for this, why not it saves life

A horrible incident just happened in my hometown. It involved an illegal immigrant who was driving his boss's car. The guy got tanked at some local bar and decided to drive it home- instead, he hit a mother and child as they were crossing the street; the child was pinned against a wall and died on impact, the mother was run over and died on the way to the hospital. Everyday I drive by the building where it happened; people have set up a memorial with flowers, stuffed animals and a place to write things. Truly a heartbreaking story.

I'm usually not for more and more government regulations but I'm having trouble seeing the downside in this!

More stupid regulation! The solution is simple; drive drunk, NO more license, drive with no license, NO more car, cause a death while drunk at the wheel, take over financial responsibility for the family or go to prison for 25 years. OR, just hire off duty cops as bartenders!

seriously can't help but to laugh when i see people breathing into one of those things before they're able to start their car.

Until this happens, I'm just punching people in the face if they attempt to drive drunk. Think about that next time you're out at a bar or party. I might be the guy right next to you.

Unless you put the dang thing smack dead in the middle of the steering wheel,i don't see how a drunken person would even bother with using it.

I think this is a really good idea, just last week a 19 year old wrapped his car around a tree in my neighborhood and died. Until something like this is reality, DESIGNATE DRIVERS people! It will save your life!

Hmm, I can't really think of why this isn't a great idea! Drunk people often have poor judgement anyway.