Two reports – one from WCBS in NY; the other from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

MADD Urges Hi-Tech Drunken-Driving Foils

Years ago, MADD started off by a mom tired that no one was trying to do anything to stop or hinder drivers under the influence.  That organization has saved a lot of lives and heartache.  They have spurned on a lot of legislation and changes in social mores that has led to society no longer accepting the idea of "hey, everyone does it".

"Using technology, tougher enforcement, stronger laws and mobilization, the goal of eliminating a primary public health threat that has plagued the United States is within our reach," said Glynn Birch, president of MADD, in a statement prepared for a news conference.

Not a bad goal.  However, over the last few years, MADD is moving from stirring up public opinion and sponsoring legislation to starting to actually manning sobriety checkpoints.  Frankly, I have seen more than one commentary that alludes to a move to being overbearing nannies.

In the first phase of the plan, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, backed by a national association of state highway officials and car manufacturers, will announce here today a campaign to change drunken-driving laws in 49 states to require that even first offenders be made to install a device that tests drivers and shuts down the car if it detects alcohol.

Now, don’t get me wrong – drunk driving is wrong!  If someone is convicted of DUI, suffer the consequences!

But last year, New Mexico became the first to make them mandatory after a first offense. With that tactic and others, the state saw a 12 percent drop in alcohol-related fatalities last year.

New Mexico was not the only state to record a decline in alcohol-related motoring deaths, and several states showed even bigger drops. For example, from 2004 to 2005, Maryland showed a decrease to 235 from 286, or 17.8 percent. In New Mexico, which has had a chronic problem with drunken driving, state officials cited the new rule on interlocks as a significant factor in their campaign to cut the fatality rate. The rule did not take effect until June 17, 2005.

This is good.  And those that are at fault (drunk drivers) are those that are going to pay for these interlocks.  For those that do not know how they work, most today require someone to breath into a tube that is connected to a device that if the alcohol level in the air is above a certain level, it will not allow the car to be started.  However:

Advocates for interlocks acknowledge that they are not foolproof. They can be easily circumvented if a sober person blows into the breath analyzer tube, for instance.

The next part is what starts to give me heartburn: 

They say the next step will be a program to develop devices to unobtrusively test every driver for alcohol and disable the vehicle. The automaker Saab and a medical equipment company already have devices that may be adapted for that job.

I don’t drink.  Never have, don’t now, probably never will (though the Good Lord above knows I’ve had sufficient reason to start).  Thankfully, my drink of choice is either Mountain Dew or a chocolate frappe (and for those of you outside of New England, that ‘s a milk shake.  Here, the traditional milk shake is just that – milk and syrup.  Frappes add the ice cream…but I digress)

WHY the heck should I be forced to purchase, as the price of a new car, something that I would never ever need?  To me, this is the epitome of the Nanny State saying "we know better than you – its for the common good, after all". 

 "We’ve seen no progress in 10 years; we’re completely stalled," said Susan Ferguson, a researcher at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

That’s right – if people are starting to ignore you…..blame it on them!  This is also more of the "no risk to living" crowd bound and determined to eliminate any possible harm, regardless of the cost.  Now, I’m not railing (yet), but I see these folks the same as those that are stopping tag at recess – because of a few, many must suffer a cost.

Ferguson said the most promising technologies would work automatically, like air bags. "We don’t want the soccer mom dropping kids off, going to the grocery store and the preschool and having to blow into something every time," she said.

Course not – make it something that somebody has to do just might have the "victim" to start thinking – isn’t this kind of nuts? 

Chuck Hurley, the chief executive of MADD, said automatic sensors might be used first in corporate fleets and that eventually insurance companies might give discounts on coverage to drivers who had them.

Sorry, but take me with a grain of salt if you want, but MADD is not going to be happy until there are NO drunk drivers…..no matter the impact on the vast majority of us. 

Murphy said the typical penalty, revoking a drunken driver’s license, didn’t work because offenders keep driving anyway; California has about 1 million people driving with suspended or revoked licenses, he said.

Easy – jail’em.  Suspend the license, and for the length of the suspension, spend your time in the cooler.  Harsh?  Well, MADD wants us ALL to suffer – I’d rather have those that committ the crime do the time.  Do it once – maybe lesson learned.

He also supports the long-term goal of unobtrusive alcohol sensing in all cars. "When 40 percent of all our crashes are alcohol-involved," he said, "I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult of a sell. There are so many innocent people being killed."

The number is 13,000 killed by drunk drivers per year. With a population of 300 million, that is 0.004% of the US is killed in accidents.  It sounds heartless – but how expensive is it going to get to get that down further – it will NEVER go to complete zero except at very high cost.  Great sentiment, good goal, but when do we stop turning over our lives in every area to those that believe they know best?

A New Mexico company, TruTouch Technologies, is modifying a technique developed for measuring blood chemistry in diabetics and using it to measure alcohol instead. The appliance shines a light through the skin on the forearm and analyzes what bounces back. Future devices may read alcohol content when a driver’s palm touches the steering wheel or the gearshift lever, said Jim McNally, the chief executive of TruTouch.

A national campaign against drunken driving began a quarter-century ago with President Reagan, and the death toll was cut by about 40 percent through a change in public attitudes and an increase in the legal drinking age. But over the past decade, although the rates of deaths per car and per mile traveled have declined, the death toll has flattened as traffic has increased.

Gee, the stats that matter do show better results (deaths per car, per mile).  And the last is a red herring – define traffic!  With a population increase, it would seem that percentage wise, the drunks are still decreasing overall, right? 

Technology is good, as long as it is used well.  It is NOT a panacea for all of society’s ills.   

And again, how long do we suffer these Nannies before we say "enough"?