Auto Shipping Blog

Archive for October, 2009

One crime which will consistently be a problem facing American citizens in today’s society can be found in the issue of Drunk Driving. Also known as operating under the influence, operating while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated, and driving under the influence, this offense takes the lives of many American’s every year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, there were an estimated 11,773 deaths caused by situations involving drunken driving. This means that the drivers Blood Alcohol Content surpassed the legal limit of .08. Of the 37,261 traffic related deaths last year, drunk drivers caused 31.6 percent of these fatalities.

While the specific consequences for driving while intoxicated will certainly vary from state to state, they generally are fairly consistent. First time offenders will generally receive a monetary fine, receive jail time or community service, and be required to attend drug and alcohol education classes as well as lose their license for a period of time. Repeat offenders will almost always receive some sort of jail time. These individuals will also be required to attend AA meetings as well as an extended number of Drug and alcohol education classes. Also, an interlock ignition device may be imposed. This device requires the driver to basically pass a Breathalyzer test before allowing them to start the vehicle.

This concept is perhaps one of the most up and coming technologies as far as regulating drunk driving sanctions. Once this sentence is imposed upon an individual who has been accused of drunk driving, that person must personally pay for the installation and maintenance of the device. Upon entering the vehicle the person must breath into the device and achieve a reading of no higher than .025 blood alcohol level. To ensure that the individual does not have a sober person perform the task for them, the device has a feature known as a rolling retest. Basically, this means that as the person is driving, a random request for a retest will be initiated. Once this happens, the driver has approximately 6 minutes to successfully perform the test, before any number of alarms start to go off (i.e. flashing lights, honking horns, etc), which can only be silenced by turning the vehicle off.

During the duration of the sentence, a log is kept to record all activity, so it can be reviewed during one of your regularly scheduled device service checks. These checks usually are mandated during either a 30, 60, or 90 day period. If there is evidence of tampering with the device, if there are three readings which contain an unacceptable BAC, or if there is a rolling retest violation, the driver will be required to come for an unscheduled maintenance check, known as early recall. During these tests the device is examined for signs of tampering as well as calibrated to ensure accurate readings and recordings are being maintained. This ensures that the offenders results can be recorded and analyzed at a later date.

While there are a wide variety of challenges associated with using such a device, these challenges vary from vehicle to vehicle. For example, someone using this device in auto shipping vehicle would have different challenges than someone operating it in a smaller sports car. While there are always criticisms involved in such implementations, these are minor in comparison to the overall safety such a device can help provide. It’s no wonder this alternative sentence is becoming increasingly popular.