Thursday, March 28, 2024

Federal Agency Recommends Treating Every Driver Like a Repeat DUI Offender

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But this supposedly wasn't going to happen…


Back on August 5 of last year I covered the “infrastructure” bill H.R. 3684 which had all kinds of pork barrel spending shoved into it, along with disturbing recommendations for more authoritarian federal measures. One of those recommendations was for new cars to be outfitted with “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology” or in other words something like breathalyzers. Essentially, everyone would be treated like they're a repeat DUI offender.

After being called all sorts of things and told I was fearmongering, the National Transportation Safety Board, a federal government agency, proudly recommended this week that all new vehicles have blood alcohol monitoring systems installed. Many outlets are heralding this as a brave move to curb accidents. I think it's yet another government encroachment on our freedoms.

Before people start putting words into my mouth, I don't think driving drunk isn't a big deal. I think people who drink and drive should face stiff penalties because of the danger they put everyone else in. However, I don't think the answer is to make you prove to an onboard system in your car you're not drunk before you can fire up the engine.

As Chairman Jennifer Homendy so artfully was quoted by The Detroit News, “We need to make sure that we're doing all we can to save lives.” Remember, any government measure which imposes on your life is worth it if it save lives – sounds familiar, doesn't it?

For now, this is simply a recommendation by NTSB, although that's how things like this start the pathway to reality. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will decide if it's enforced. If so, automakers would be required to implement such a system. How exactly a vehicle would read your blood alcohol level isn't entirely clear. Do you have to stick yourself like a diabetic and submit the blood sample into some receptacle? Do you have to blow into a breathalyzer? Whatever it is, I don't think this is a good idea at all.

To get people worked up, many media outlets are talking up how big of a danger drunk driving is in the United States. They're using phrases like “crisis levels” of deaths on public roads and drunk driving being “one of the biggest causes.” Again, drunk driving is dangerous and it does kill too many, but so does distracted driving, aggressive driving/road rage, falling asleep, applying makeup, shaving, or doing all sorts of other stupid things behind the wheel. The risk of fatalities doesn't by itself eclipse God-given constitutional rights, even if unelected government officials say they do.

I don't like the idea of being treated like I'm a suspect for drunk driving just because the government has decided to treat everyone that way. I don't even drink, but I'll have to prove I haven't been tipping the bottle every time I want to start up a new vehicle. What if the onboard system malfunctions, reads someone's blood alcohol level as not legal, and that person is stranded? I don't think the federal government will take any accountability for that or other problems associated with the safety regulation. Will automakers? What will be the net result?

If NHTSA decides to move on this regulatory recommendation, it could put it in place in as few as three years. That's right, in just three years your new car will refuse to start up if it decides you've been drinking too much, and hopefully it doesn't get that measurement wrong.

Images via (in order) PexelsRachel ClaireElevate

This article originally appeared in Motorious. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News. Republished with permission.

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Steven Symes
Steven Symes
Steven has loved all things on wheels from an early age. He started off admiring Corvettes and Porsches, but his tastes have grown to include a variety of everything, from classic to modern vehicles.

36 COMMENTS

      • My last month paycheck was 12,500 dollars. All I did was simple 0nline work from comfort at home for 6-8 hours/day that I got from this agency I discovered over the internet and they paid me 45 dollars every hour.
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    • Remember, the government forced carmakers to install seat belts, crash bags, side marker lights and other things that were to make you “safer”. They never stopped to think that taking the dangerous drivers completely off the road, did they?

      • To be fair, a car accident can happen to anyone even if the dangerous drivers are taken off the road. A tire can blow, a tree branch suddenly fall in the road, etc., to cause an accident. And those safety devices will protect the occupants regardless of the cause of the accident.

    • “they” can do anything “they” want. It was proven by the poison covid vaccine. Doesnt really matter anyway. Whether you realize it or not the government can shut down any of the new vehicles, any time they want now. All the computer modules in new vehicles can be controlled when ever they want. Ever have your windows rolled down when you got back to a new vehicle? I know many who have.

  1. It won’t stop at breathalyzer. What’s to stop them from putting cameras, microphones, heart monitors, etc? You know, all in the name of keeping you safe.

  2. With the cost of fuel and vehicles so high, the cost of staying drunk is cheaper. Therefore, don’t drive – DRINK!

    • How do they know the person blowing into the device is going to be the one driving ? Facial recognition? A system that simultaneously checks your Blood alcohol level AND DNA randomly as you’re driving?

  3. Our government is nothing but a bunch of nazis. The voters are no better. Living in fear because a buffoon in the White House is a unamerican idiot. Old people are just cowards.

    • Just a minute there dingle…while I agree with most of what you said at the beginning of your post, you don’t be draggin’ ALL “Old people” into your fantasies…we didn’t get to this age by being cowards and we certainly aren’t that way today…besides, and you’ll remember this if and when you get “Old”, you ain’t gettin’ no younger yourself berry…

      • Orange Peel, you stated that OLD people are cowards? I don’t know where you came up with that idea.
        Nevertheless, my older husband insisted that we buy a new car since
        ours was over 15 years old. The new car is more of a computer than anything else. Since I work on a computer all day long, I know the glitches they all have.
        The new car is the same. For no reason at all, it will message me to “BRAKE” for no reason or that “STEERING IS REQUIRED.” Duh, to the last one. It also requires “updates” while I’m trying to get to work! So, I sit there for several minutes, wasting fuel, while it updates. We had a rock crack the windshield shortly after we bought it. It took over a month to get a new one. It seems the windshield is computerized also. These are just a few glitches in the new, unimproved, lightweight aluminum vehicles.
        I was going to sell the old car but decided to keep it.
        Being old, I will never buy another new car. It has nothing to do with being a coward, though.

    • You better take a look at who is voting for these idiots!! Start talking liberals, including the millennials and gen Xers along with stupid woke white females and foreigners who dont know a thing about our rights but sure know about the handouts they get. That is why so many hispanics and others are finally voting conservative. Put me as one of those.

  4. What we need is less mandated junk on vehicles. Part of the problem today beside Biden Inflation is the cost that Junk adds to a vehicle. We need to get back to 4 wheels, steering wheel, motor, gas and brake pedals, muffler, turn signals and lights. .Do gooders and techies are dangerous to public as a whole.

  5. No. Just No. Not even if they were to run a two year trial study that encompassed only the elected officials at the local, state and federal office level. Not even under those conditions.

  6. Diabetics often have breath which smells like alcohol. If such a system in a car could be triggered by that, it would be a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and, likely, other laws. It’s also a violation of common sense!

    • How dare you say those stooges in Washington DC have no common sense. Why, they’re being led by a senile old man( I’m 93 so I can say that) that can’t remember his name half the time. He claims everything is great under his administration.

  7. And when the electronics goes bad who pays for it? If my car won move (I don’t even consume alcohol) who pays for the inconvenience?

    Electronics go bad often.

    Innocent util proven guilty.

  8. Just a ploy for more government control, be ready to prove other things before you exercise rights and privileges in the future

  9. If they force car makers to install a device that makes you prove you have an IQ of at least 30 to drive the car there will not be a Nazi Communist Democrat or a Politician on the road. Works for me!

  10. I read once that all car crashes are 39% alcohol related. That doesnt sound too good for the other 61%. Which group has fewer accidents? Maybe this new tech wont let you start your car unless you`ve had a nip or two.

  11. i wonder when the government will have these “safety systems” report the “crime” to law enforcement so these “criminals can be arrested? I mean I can’t remember when an automated system went wrong? Another socialist proposal!

  12. I see a chance to start a new cottage industry. I’ll hang around in bar parking lots and breathe or bleed into drunks’ car devices so they can get home. Potential for a good income here!

  13. I’m old enough to remember the 1974 federal mandate where front seat occupants had to be wearing seatbelts for the car to start. It ticked off more people than Watergate that year, so the House repealed it.

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