Posted on 06/02/2016 9:22:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A new Victorian State Government trial will force drivers to pass a breathalyser test before leaving licensed venues.
The 'alco-gates' will see breath tests linked to the boom gates at car parks via sensors, and were announced as part of the State Government’s Towards Zero 2016-2020 road strategy.
If drivers fail the breath test, the boom gate will prevent them from leaving and they will be made to wait until they are sober or take a taxi home.
The trial will begin at a small number of pubs and clubs initially, before being rolled out further if successful.
Those affected by the state’s road toll have supported the Transport Accident Commission’s move to introduce the trial.
Danielle Haggerty lost her brother, Scott, in 2008 after he spent the day drinking and crashed his car into a power pole after deciding to drive home.
“It means a lot if it prevents another family going through what I’ve gone through,” she said.
“I think there’s so much value in it if it prevents people driving home.
“Just think of the families and what we’ve been through.
“It’s nearly been ten years but we’re still suffering every day.”
Director of Road Safety at VicRoads, Antonietta Cavallo, said the trial is one of many measures being considered to work toward a 20 percent reduction in the state’s road toll by 2020.
“We’re taking everything we know from around the world and bringing it here to see if it can save lives,” Ms Cavallo said.
“Alco-gates is a way we can look to resolve that problem.”
Ms Cavallo said the pilot wouldn’t be purely to “catch people,” but rather “help them make good choices before they decide to drive or even go out.”
The TAC’s Samantha Buckis said the technology is modelled on similar world-first practices paired with enforcement in Stockholm.
“It’s been a great deterrence model in Sweden,” Ms Buckis said.
“When people get off the port at the ferry they go through boom gates that they have to breathe into to check their blood alcohol concentration levels, and if they’re okay they go through.”
She said the logistics still had to be fine-tuned, and enforcement would come in the way of boomgates being manned.
“It’s likely to be manned, even if it’s not policed, with people who could assist with moving cars out of the way,” Ms Buckis said.
Do you think alco-gates are a good idea? Yes No A The TAC is also considering other trials including a road side fatigue test, where alarms are set off inside the car if passengers fall asleep.
Alongside the 20 percent reduction in deaths, the government hopes to decrease serious injury by 15 percent by 2020. The current road toll stands at 116.
The alco-gates trial will begin next year, however the number of venues to be included in the first stage is yet to be determined.
Do people have to stick something in their mouth ? Because that’s nasty.
Addendum: What if the sensors fail ? Is the whole garage stuck in there ?
What about exhaust gasses ? What if some guy passes the test, opens the gate, then spits a mouthful of vodka on it ?
Keep drunks off the road.
Works for me.
In theory. In fact breathalyzers are junk.
Imagine what Stalin, Hitler, Wilson or Tojo could’ve done with the technology of today.
But as long as it keeps drunks off the road it’s perfectly okay. /s
These “zero whatever goals” are just another form of totalitarianism.
Department of PreCrime.
Absolute control. AKA a boot stomping on a human face forever.
Protecting society from drunk drivers very soon becomes protecting society from non compliant bakers and people spewing hate speech by using to much salt or failing to call a person by the proper pronoun.
This is the first step towards such devices installed in all automobiles. If will not get your license tabs renewed if you don’t install one in your car. Then, these things will be disabled like they will learn to disable these gate devices. I would blow up a balloon and blow the air into the device.
They say that more emphasis on drunk driving has reduced the incidence of death in accidents. I wonder about the increase in auto safety devices, safer roads and the advances in medical aid in the United States. What decreases in auto deaths are due to reduced drunk driving and should they be justification for greater efforts to reduce drunk drivers?
My eyes are missing things: “If will not get your license tabs . . . “ should be “You will not get your license tabs . . . “
I am a car-guy, and a mechanic, and I used to carry a portable air tank with me to inflate or fix a tire, if the need arose. I can foresee someone making an adapter, using a portable tank that can fool an Alco-test if they are adopted. It wouldn’t take an engineer to make a suitable adapter to fool the system.
I think you are going to find that most drunk driving crashes are caused by people with a known history of alcohol or drug use. Rather than punish the majority for what a few do, take the driver’s licenses away from the repeat offenders.
This is a case where profiling not only works but it should be employed. (Actually, I can think of many other examples where it works and should be employed. Why should the vast majority of people who are not terrorists get treated like terrorists? Apparently Israel has set the spot-em standard for the world. Why don’t we use their system?)
so some guy at the gate doesn’t pass the test and the bar wont raise for him to leave...
what about the people sitting in cars behind his...
are they stuck there until he sobers up ???
Mandatory breathalyzers on cars was set before the New Mexico legislature in 2000. It didn’t pass.
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