ABI Urges Transportation Committee to Amend Expensive, Misguided Breathalyzer Bill
ABI Letter Urges Legislators to Reject Low-BAC, First-Offender Interlock BillOctober 6, 2009
WASHINGTON – Today the American Beverage Institute (ABI), which represents over 120 Massachusetts restaurants, sent a letter to the Joint Transportation Committee urging its members to amend SB1925 – an ignition interlock bill – which will be heard before the Committee at 11am this morning.
Below is an excerpt from the letter:
Mandating ignition interlocks for low-BAC, first time DUI offenders is the wrong approach. The focus of Massachusetts’ drunk driving legislation should be on the high-BAC (blood alcohol concentration) and repeat offenders who cause the vast majority of alcohol-related driving fatalities in the state.
The average BAC of a drunk driver involved in a fatal accident is .19% BAC—more than twice the state’s legal limit of .08%. Studies have shown that drivers are more dangerous talking on a hands-free cell phone than they are driving at .08%. And yet that is the level at which this bill would mandate an ignition interlock device—which, due to their fallibility and intrusiveness, have heretofore been reserved for hard-core offenders.
In addition to targeting the wrong offenders, this mandate will cost Massachusetts $4.5 million to enforce. This cost is based on a conservative estimate made by the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) of $3 per day to monitor each offender for a minimum of six months.
For those who choose to drive while extremely intoxicated and those who repeatedly flout the law, ignition interlock technology is an effective and proper law enforcement response. But we shouldn’t punish someone who has one sip of wine over the limit the same way we punish hard core alcoholics. For these reasons, we strongly urge you to amend SB 1925 to target high-BAC offenders.
These are all reasons why 27 states currently require interlocks for high-BAC and repeat-offenders, while just 11 target low-BAC, first-time offenders.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) claims that studies show that interlock mandates reduce drunk driving recidivism by over 60 percent, but there are numerous weak correlations in that study and deliberate omissions in MADD’s use of that statistic.ABI encourages the Transportation Committee to learn the truth about MADD’s bad stats on our website: InterlockFacts.com.
“The legislature should amend this bill to require interlocks for high-BAC and repeat-offenders who cause the vast majority of alcohol-impaired fatalities,” said ABI Managing Director Sarah Longwell.
She continued, “A 120 pound woman can reach the .08 BAC level by having two glasses of wine in two hours. Should she receive the same punishment as someone with a .19 BAC level or multiple offenses?”