The original draft of this email was sent to Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation, Shannon Valentine, and copied to Washington Post “Local Opinions” editor Jamie Riley Kolsky.
Dear Secretary Valentine,
Your Local Opinions piece in The Post this morning says nothing specific about the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, which supposedly has “the ability to unobtrusively and [yet] precisely detect the blood alcohol level of a driver” [“A high-tech solution to drunk driving,” C4, Jan. 24].
What if a driver is stone sober — let’s say, the parent of a naughty high school kid who calls home after some Saturday-night underage drinking — and, like a good Samaritan, piles her drunken kid into the front seat (or back seat) for a safe ride home? Will this magical technology you’re talking about discern between the driver’s and passenger’s blood alcohol levels? If not, how can it be very practical much less become popular with consumers and voters if it prevents the car from moving in such a circumstance?
I’m no expert, but it seems to me there are already technologies in use ― albeit imperfect technologies ― that judges can order adjudicated drunk drivers to install in their vehicles to prevent ignitions from turning over if the breathalyzer-like device detects booze on the breath.
But how does the new technology you write vaguely about improve upon that established technology without becoming just another costly, Big Government-imposed hassle for responsible, law-abiding citizens?
Curiously,
Darren McKinney
Washington, D.C.