| From www.roadsafety.org.uk Good Motoring Magazine Good Motoring questions answered by David Freeman of Lion Laboratories GM: In what circumstances could an ‘alcolock’ be used? DF: Currently there are two principal reasons; judicial and commercial. Judicial is where the courts have mandated an alcolock for a recidivist drinking driver either from conviction or on completion of the driving ban for a defined period, usually one year. Some countries use the courts via the probation services to administer the mandate, others use the driving licensing authorities. Commercial use, still in its infancy other than in Sweden, is the voluntary use either by public vehicle authorities or private commercial vehicle operators for a variety of reasons but mainly as a corporate responsibility towards road safety and risk liability. GM: How do they work? What’s the science behind them? DF: Current technology uses the same methods as used in law enforcement; an alcohol breath testing device (a hand held 'tethered' or 'wireless' breathalyser) coupled to a vehicle ignition blocking system usually an on/off relay in the ignition circuit and fitted as an after market system. GM: What safeguards can be put in place to ensure a user can’t short-circuit the system? DF: Anti-tamper and anti-circumvention are a serious part of the design of the system the details of which are covered by international specifications and guidelines for this type of device. Of course alcolocks are not 100% circumvention proof; after all one can get anyone else to provide the breath sample but it is felt in the industry that this is unlikely (would you knowingly provide a breath sample for someone intending to drive while intoxicated?) and also rolling retests can be made part of the testing protocol. GM: Are they in use successfully elsewhere in the world? DF: In judicial applications they are in use in the USA, Canada, Australia and in the Nordic countries of Sweden and Finland and have proved to be successful in reducing drinking and driving especially in recidivist dinking drivers. Sweden is the first country to have government support for the fitting of alcolocks to commercial and public vehicles. GM: What has happened to the latest plans to reduce the UK drink-drive limit? DF: It is still likely that this will happen eventually and be reduced to 50 mg alcohol per 100 ml in blood (22ug/100ml in breath) which is the norm in most of Europe today and the Government is under EU pressure to standardise at this level. The DfT have just financed this year a proposed change in roadside screener devices for use by the police which will have data logging capabilities, the statistics from which may be used to get the evidence together to justify the change. GM: What are they key arguments in support of reducing the level – and leaving it alone? DF: It is argued that 80mg/100ml is too high and encourages drinking and driving although most people underestimate how much they can drink and still be legal. It has always been argued anecdotally that the majority of convicted drinking drivers have a blood alcohol level way in excess of the current 80 mg/100ml and so a reduction was not needed. GM: If you could be roads minister for the day, what drink-drive measure might you introduce? DF: Encourage more spending on manned road policing although this is not currently a popular measure, financially, as the huge increase in automatic systems in use demonstrates. Road blocks and true random screening is the only way to make a serious mark on the current levels although this will never prevent the problem drinker from continuing to drink and drive; hence the alcolock solution.
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