Sobercheck Provides Alcohol Interlock Devices For Government Programme

Sober Check is New Zealand’s largest and most trusted supplier of certified drug and alcohol testing equipment supplying nationwide to a wide range of industry sectors. They are also now an NZTA approved provider of Smart Start alcohol ignition interlock devices for repeat drink drivers, operating this division of their business under the name Smart Start Interlocks

A programme to fit locking breathalysers to repeat drink drivers' cars, Alcohol Interlocks became a sentencing option for repeat drunk drivers and those caught at more than twice the legal limit in 2012, and the Ministry of Transport says the systems cut repeat offending by two thirds, Fitted to vehicles, alcohol interlocks require drivers to be breathalysed before they can be operated. If alcohol is detected the car is locked, requiring a trained technician to unlock it.

One driver with an alcohol interlock said it was life changing. Aucklander, Lex Crotty, a former truck driver, was faced with choosing between an interlock system or going to jail following his sixth drink driving conviction in June 2014. He said the system helped him impose limits on his drinking that ensured he was sober whenever he wanted to drive. "I would put one on every car in New Zealand, that's how strongly I feel about it. It's the most awesome things that's happened to me. I just wish they'd been around 20 years ago."

Two companies, Smart Start and Drager, were approved as providers in 2012 and built a nationwide network of technicians to install the devices and the Automobile Association is lobbying for the systems to be made mandatory, arguing it is the best way to reduce drink driving. Ben Young, Senior Advisor at AA said the Government should consider finding another way to fund the system, such as using fines from other drunk drivers, as it was an issue of public safety. "We're concerned that if changes are not made to this programme it could fall over and we're back to a catch and release syndrome which we've got now, and which isn't working."

According to the Ministry of Transport, offenders who participate in an interlock system show a 67 per cent reduction in repeat offences compared to licence disqualification and it estimated that if the system was compulsory it would save two lives, prevent 40 injuries, and cut the social cost of road crashes and alcohol by almost $20 million each year. Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss would not comment on the alcohol interlock programme beyond saying it is part of a review of sanctions for drink-driving which began in 2014.

For more information on the alcohol interlock devices, please visit the Smart Start website at http://www.smartstartinterlocks.co.nz