Drunk DrivingInterlock Essay Research Paper The Ignition

Drunk Driving(Interlock) Essay, Research Paper

The Ignition Interlock for Drunk Drivers

The ignition interlock is a high tech system that eveuates the persons BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) to see if the individual has been drinking. The device works like a normal Breathalyzer. The device is mounted on the dashboard and in order for the car to start the individual must blow into the machine. The machine then evaluates the persons BAC and if that person shows no sign of alcohol use the car will start. If the results come back saying he has consumed alcohol the vehicle will not start. When the vehicle starts and has been for around an hour the person must again blow into the machine to once again evaluate the person s condition. The maximum aloud limit is .04 mg of alcohol per 100mL of blood. Each time the individual uses the system and small computer records information. The system it self costs around 135.00 with a maintenance fee of about 100.00 a month.

The hypotheses for this program are: Is the ignition interlock program effective in reducing impaired driving recidivism? Does it have an impact on more serious, persistent impaired drivers? Finally, does the program continue to be effective even after the interlock device is removed? (Weinrath)

Random sampling of Canadian drivers who had their license suspended between 1989-94 did the I.I.P. (Ignition Interlock Program). The sample was done with 994 offenders age 20 and up. 125 of them were female, 701 were male and 189 ignition interlock cases. The breakdown was 168 I.I.P cases and 826 drunk driving offenders for the comparison group. These tests were done in Canada and others were done in states of Ohio, California and Oregon. The problems for those tests were inaccurate data received from the tests. In Ohio and California no control groups was used and the data fail to give them the correct info. The control group was used in Oregon with two sides one group was created using reinstated drivers that never had the program. Using the offenders who used the I.I.P. Due to its short experiment time it was hard to get any long-term data out of the study created the other group.

Referring back to the samples taken in Canada. 87% of them were men in there 30 s who were employed (75%). 43% of them were married living in normal relationship. 57% of them were single or divorced or widowed. Half the samples (50%) lived in rural small towns. (Weinrath)

I believe the ignition interlock system is a great way to keep drunks off the road. As the result of this test show the decrease in accidents with the Ignition interlock system. I included a graph to show the survival rates of offenders over two years. Even after the removal of the ignition interlock there was a 10% difference in DUI recidivism. Even though this might only save a couple lives but think of how many families feel more secure with this system. I see this as a great idea and should include it in every car in the U.S. and Canada. This will make sure there is a designated driver at all times and the likelihood of an accident is minimized.

This system I think would work great for first time offenders. I believe the hassle of using the machine for a certain period will make people understand and may not take the chance of driving impaired. I believe the license suspension should always be in effect along with jail time. These are temporary and not long lasting but adding the Ignition interlock to offender for a period of time would make people understand. The longevity of the I.I.P. would be on the discretion of the judge. The Testing of the systems should still continue in the rest of the states to get a more accurate numbers believe the offenders should buy the system and pay the cost for maintaining it monthly. When the offenders start dropping $130.00 a month of their own money for a stupid machine to start your car then they might realize the crime they are committing.

I don t believe the article was presented clearly because all it did was show me numbers and statistic. I was hoping it would tell me more about how the test results turned out in English terms not all this scientific formula. It gets rather confusing when you are bombarded with all these numbers. I believe the author had all his material but presented it in a confusing way. The method he used was great but I don t think it gave an accurate 100% result. His findings were terrific but he never expanded his experiment beyond three states and one providence. I don t believe the article or sample were gender, class, and age or racially biased in anyway possible. Weinrath does base a conclusion on the data and the results he discovered and yes I do believe his work benefits society keeping people safe. In my book safety for everyone and everybody is the greatest thing around. Just the experiments done can t really affect criminal justice policy-making at the present time but maybe in the future when it becomes more wide spread. I believe Weinrath strong point of this article was the uses of the graphs to give the reader a better visual idea of what he is talking about. He seems to lack on a lot of missing information or information withheld from this article for some reason. I had to read this article two times to get the actual mental picture of what he is talking about and to me seems ridiculous to me and should be presented more clearly. I guess this is how information is presented in scientific journals.