Drink driving is one of the stupidest things a person can do – bloody idiot, get a plan B, go to bed Jessica. But how would you feel about having to submit a blood alcohol reading every single time you got behind the wheel? According to one Aussie politician, that’s our future.
Last week, Victorian Minister for Roads Terry Mulder said, “Technological advances mean that in the long-term alcohol interlocks are likely to be a standard feature of all new vehicles in Australia.”
Added security measure
Mr Mulder made his comments as Victoria announced new legislation to have interlock devices put in the cars of all drink drivers.
Alcohol interlocks are breathalyser units installed into a car’s dashboard which need to be used before the car will start. If the user’s blood alcohol is over the legal limit, the car will be immobilised.
While this would seem easy enough to get around – someone who hasn’t been drinking gives the sample for you (clearly this person wouldn’t be a friend, because friends don’t let friends drink and drive) – the newest interlocks have checks to ensure the driver is submitting the test.
“As an added security measure, the [Victorian] Coalition Government is requiring camera-activated ignition interlock devices to be used by offenders, to help identify who has provided the breath sample,” Mr Mulder said.
The cost of having an interlock with camera installed is reported to be around $1000, a hip-pocket hit to be taken by the offender.
Which brings us back to Mr Mulder’s suggestion these interlocks are the way of the future for all Australian cars.
$20 billion cost
With 30 per cent of traffic fatalities caused by drunk drivers, having an immobiliser on every vehicle in the country seems a great way of saving lives. Furthermore, it’s a pretty straightforward case of ‘if you’re not guilty, you’ve got nothing to worry about’.
Except the cost of your car just went up by a grand.
While the introduction of random breath testing across Australian states in the 1980s was seen by many as an invasion of privacy – why should I have to stop and blow into a bag if I’m driving safely within the speed limit? – a huge drop in road deaths has been the result. The thousands of lives saved would broadly be seen as a worthwhile trade for a small invasion of privacy.
But to have every single car in the country fitted with its own breath-tester – which takes your photo as you use it – at a thousand dollar cost to the consumer isn’t just a small invasion of privacy, it’s a nation-wide assumption of guilt which will cost billions.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 17,180,596 vehicles on our roads in 2013. Tack three zeroes on the end of that, factor in an annual increase in car numbers of around three per cent, and by 2020 the total cost of installing alcohol interlocks in every car in the country is around $20 billion.
Twenty billion dollars. It’s enough to take your breath away – and then how will you submit your test? In fact, I’m predicting it’s just too high a number, “technological advances… in the long-term” or not, an alcohol interlock in every Australian car ain’t gunna happen.
Spare a thought for Victorians
What will happen is almost three times as many Victorians having interlock systems installed in their cars. By 2016, Victoria’s legislation will see the thousand-dollar interlocks in the cars of all “drink-drivers not currently subject to an alcohol interlock because their licence has not been cancelled”.
While drink driving is inexcusable, is it unforgivable? How many people do you know who have been done for drink driving who were careless rather than reckless – those who drove the next day thinking they were ‘fine’, or provisional drivers who had a blood alcohol level higher than zero?
Should they really be subject to the same scrutiny and cost – the thousand dollars installation doesn’t factor fines or money spent getting a new interlock license – as repeat offenders, presently the only people required to have interlocks installed?
The post All Australians to be breathalysed and photographed every time we get behind the wheel? appeared first on Techly.