
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 26, 1995                   TAG: 9506260019
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DRUNKEN DRIVERS UNDER `CAR ARREST'

A NUISANCE - and very embarrassing, too. That may be the reaction of some Virginians convicted of drunken driving, beginning July 1, if a judge gives them this ultimatum:

You want to continue driving? OK, you must, at your expense, outfit your vehicle with a device that will measure the level of alcohol in your blood before it will let you turn the key in the ignition. Have even a little nip before getting behind the wheel, and the car won't start.

And don't think you can outsmart it: starting out sober, but guzzling booze as you drive along. The device will require periodic ``rolling retests.'' Skip the retest or flunk it, and the car's high beams will flash on and off, and the car's horn will sound: a commotion summoning the police and alerting fellow travelers to your status - drunk.

Humiliating? Sorry, no sympathy from these quarters.

For all the tough new laws to curb drunken driving, and the social stigma attached to it, there are still too many of you out there: cocky and habitual drinkers who show no respect for the law, or for the lives of innocent others whom you put in jeopardy. You scare us, and we want you off the roads. But we don't have enough money to build enough jails and prisons to lock you all up. So if a new technology can help, we're all for it.

Virginia is the 35th state to adopt some form of ignition interlock program - electronic or computerized surveillance of DUI convictees. Similar programs in Maryland and West Virginia have shown good results.

In Maryland, where the monitoring devices (actually Breathalyzers) have been installed in 205 drivers' vehicles since 1993, just one of those drivers has been rearrested for drunken driving, a recidivism rate of 0.48 percent. In West Virginia, with 677 installations, three people have been rearrested, a recidivism rate of 0.44 percent. It's too early into the exercise for definitive conclusions. But in comparison, the typical recidivism rate - that is, first-time DUI convictees who relapse and get caught for drunken driving again - can go as high as 70 percent.

Darrel Longest of Life Sciences Corp., which will provide the monitoring equipment for Virginia, asserts that ``if people are drinking and driving, this program will catch up to them, and catch up to them fast.'' Sounds good. Of course, even the technology's safeguards are no guarantee that clever souses can't find ways to trip it up or circumvent it. Most gadgetry, high-tech or otherwise, is not foolproof.

But so what? Even if this isn't the ultimate solution, it is a useful new tool for combating drunken driving and making Virginia's streets and highways safer. As for the nuisance and embarrassment factors - they're icing on the cake.

by CNB