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Ignition Locks Reduce DWIs |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Interlocks, breath-testing devices that prevent a vehicle's ignition from starting if the driver is above a preset blood alcohol limit, can dramatically reduce driving-while-impaired (DWIs) offenses among first-time offenders, a new study shows. The findings help settle a dispute over whether interlocks work as well with first-time offenders as with repeat offenders, providing key new evidence that could influence the decisions of lawmakers and judges on how to keep drunk drivers off the road. Researchers compared two groups of first time DWI offenders in New Mexico: those who had installed interlocks as part of their sentence, and those who had not. This study, which was published in the current issue of the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, examined the records of 1,461 first time DWI offenders who had interlocks installed in their vehicles, and compared them to 17,562 first offenders who didn't use the devices. Two other earlier studies questioned whether interlocks changed the behavior of first-time DWI offenders. But researchers in the New Mexico study noted that in the earlier studies: only a small proportion of those required to install the interlocks actually did so. "The idea that there should be any important difference between the risk posed by a first offender and a repeat offender is unsupported," Marques says. "The average first offender has driven drunk many times before he or she was arrested. The Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (www.saprp.org) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds research into policies related to alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country.
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