Interlock Facts

Two bills that failed during the last Texas legislative session are getting renewed focus from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

At its national convention this weekend in Dallas, MADD is pushing for sobriety checkpoints and ignition interlock breathalyzer legislation that they say will dramatically reduce the number of drunk drivers.

"Texas has a revolving door for drunk drivers right now," said MADD spokeswoman Misty Moyse, noting that the state leads the nation in alcohol-related traffic deaths with almost 1,300 such fatalities last year.

The American Beverage Institute denounced both efforts, saying they fail to target the real threat: habitual alcohol abusers. The beverage group suggested alternatives that include having police units that specifically patrol for drunk drivers.

"We have lost perspective when it comes to the people who we are trying to target," ABI managing director Sarah Longwell said.

Sobriety checkpoints

Legislation for sobriety checkpoints has been introduced in every Texas Legislature since 1994, when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said such checkpoints were unconstitutional unless a statewide governmental entity established guidelines.

During the 2007 session, the mayors of Fort Worth, Dallas and Arlington pushed for the legislation, but it failed again. Texas is one of about a dozen states that does not have sobriety checkpoint legislation.

"I’ve worked on this every session and will keep coming back every session until it passes" said Bill Lewis, who lobbies the Legislature for MADD.

He said research shows that having sobriety checkpoints will reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths by about 15 to 20 percent, potentially saving about 300 lives a year in Texas.

But ABI’s Longwell said random checkpoints usually result in people being fined for minor offenses, such as driving with out-of-date registration and inspection stickers, and rarely catch drunk drivers.

"An alternative and much more effective approach would be to have specific roving patrols whose job it is to find unsafe driving," Longwell said.

"It is a lot less expensive to operate and find the unsafe drivers who need to be found instead of being in one spot and getting people who just happen to be driving by who may not have done anything wrong."

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Most states require police to publicize where checkpoints will be, or the location is widely spread by word of mouth, allowing drivers who pay attention to avoid them, Longwell said.

Those most often stopped by a checkpoint are responsible adults, she said.

Lewis agreed that checkpoints lead to few drunk driving arrests. He said that is because people modify their behavior or allow others to drive because the checkpoints are there.

MADD polls show the public supports the checkpoints by a 2-to-1 margin, Lewis said.

"When we have to go to the airport, we all go through the security checkpoints and we are happy to do to because we’re fairly certain we don’t have a bomb and we want them to catch any terrorist who may have one," he said. "Drunk drivers are like terrorists who are driving a 4,000- or 5,000-pound bomb around in the streets."

Interlock breathalyzer

MADD representatives want any person convicted of drunk driving to have an ignition interlock breathalyzer system installed, even for a first offense. The device requires the driver to blow into a breathalyzer to test his alcohol level before the ignition can be unlocked.

A 2007 bill on the matter did not make it out of committee.

"At this time, probation and a suspended driver’s license is the most common punishment for first-time offenders," Moyse said "And many times, those drivers continue driving drunk and are arrested numerous times during that time."ABI supports punishing those who drive while intoxicated; however, judges need leeway to give graduated punishments, Longwell said.

A 120-pound woman would reach the 0.08 intoxication limit by having two glasses of wine in two hours, she said.

"If she is a sip over the limit, under this law, she would be treated the same as a guy who had 10 beers in an hour," Longwell said.