A night on the town could be a thing of the pastAs a DUI Lawyer in Orange County, I try to keep ahead of developments in breath and blood testing. But technology from the automotive world might be a game changer as far as how DUI s might be handled, or prevented, in the future.
Several automotive manufacturers have been meeting with, partnering with, and developing experimental technology to detect alcohol, including alcohol emitted from the skin in sweat through the steering wheel, or from the breath.
In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a 5-year campaign to develop ignition interlocks as standard equipment in all vehicles. NHTSA and the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety—which is funded by auto manufacturers—have budgeted $10 million to solicit research and development on the widespread use of this in-vehicle technology.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has asked Congress for another $60 million to be allotted annually for alcohol detector development. So there is big money behind this.
The group opposing this? It’s the American Beverage Institute, which fears this would prevent people from going out for even one drink. Of course, as my fellow Orange County DUI Lawyers know, a machine is only as accurate as the maintenance, calibration and margin of error for the device allows it to be, assuming no deviations from standards. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say, and in this case, a false positive or machine malfunction could have serious consequences to the driver. The Beverage Institute’s newsroom is here at: http://abionline.org/newsroom.cfm?t=inthenews
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TagsAlcohol, American Beverage Institute, Driving under the influence, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, orange county, Orange County California, orange county dui arrests, Orange County DUI Attorney, orange county dui attorneys, orange county dui checkpoint locations, orange county dui checkpoints, orange county dui lawyer, orange county dui lawyers
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 11:42 am and is filed under Dui Checkpoints, DUI News, DUI politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
