From the ArcaMax Publishing, Automotive Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/automotive/s-366124-155358
If you're not a convicted drunk driver, should you still be required
to have an in-car breathalyzer fitted (at your expense, 'natch) to
your next new vehicle?
Apparently, some automakers - including GM and Toyota - think so.
They and a few others are working together under the auspices of
something called the Driver Alcohol Detection System for (of course)
Safety, a $10 million federal "research program" that is trying to
develop just such technology for mass introduction a few years from
now. (See http://www.dadss.org/ )
At the moment, the only people who have to deal with (and pay for)
in-car Breathalyzers are convicted drunks; the devices are basically
ignition locks that prevent the vehicle's engine from being started
until the would-be driver blows into the tube and the system
determines he's not liquored up.
But by 2012 or so, in-car breath sniffers could be standard equipment
in every new vehicle sold, force-fed to you by the tag team of
Washington, Detroit and (naturlich) the ever-busy Mothers Against
Drunk Driving. No conviction necessary.
Advocates say the technology under development would be "less
intrusive." Instead of making the driver blow into a little tube like
they make you do at those roadside "sobriety checkpoints," a system of
passive alcohol sensors would be fitted to the car that could take a
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) reading via a person's skin - as when your
hand touches the shifter or steering wheel. This "quiet" approach is
supposed to make us feel better about being pre-convicted and treated
like known and duly processed irresponsible drunks every single time
we get behind the wheel of a car. It doesn't work for me.
I dislike drunk drivers as much as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (is
anyone actually for drunk driving)? But I certainly do object to
policies and regulations that impose cost and hassle and arguably,
petit tyranny, on people who have done absolutely nothing to warrant
it.
This isn't about nannyism so much as it is about upending a few basic
bedrock Western ideas about criminal justice, rights and
responsibilities. Chief among these being that each of us gets treated
as a specific individual. If we do something wrong, we get
specifically held accountable for it; the guy next door who had
nothing to do with it isn't dragged along for the ride. But that's
just what is happening here - indeed, has already happened - from
those so-called "sobriety checkpoints" (which mostly "check"
perfectly sober drivers) to the growing kudzu of "primary enforcement"
seat belts laws that pester (and ticket) people for not wearing a seat
belt, an action that may not be especially smart on an individual
level but which has very little to do with the safety or well-being
of others.
What's even worse than these growing harassments, however, is how few
object to them on principle. Perhaps it's because of the continuous
dumbing-down of the populace, which knows all about Lindsay Lohan's
latest bender and who's the latest finalist on American Idol but no
longer understands that the ends don't justify the means - and that
down that road lies much worse than henpecky tickets and having to pay
a few more bucks for your next new car as a result of some government
mandate. People used to get that; today, most don't seem to. It's the
only way to explain the tsunami-like effectiveness of the word,
"safety" - which doesn't have to be specifically defined, quantified,
subjected to cost-benefit analysis or throttled back by the
once-superior claim of the individual's "personal bubble of authority"
- where he or she formerly reigned supreme, free of the suffocating
and endless edicts of others who claim their evaluation of a perceived
risk trumps your personal right to choose.
Just say "safety" (and for added emphasis, include "our children") and
no objection can be sustained. This latest bit of ugliness burbling
up from the stinkpot of government-corporate do-gooderism is merely a
symptom of the underlying canker that is our ignorance - and
acquiescence.
Earlier generations of Americans would have said, "Hold on a minute. I
haven't been convicted of driving drunk; hell, I've never even been
suspected of it. Why in the world should I be required to buy an
alcohol sniffer to check me out before I drive?" They would have
insisted on tough punishment for the specific dimwit who got behind
the wheel of a car impaired by booze. But they would have insisted,
with equal toughness, that everyone else be left the hell alone to go
about their business in peace.
Today, however, the siren song of saaaaaaaaafety is like a secular
version of the prayer call in Muslim countries. When people hear it,
they automatically fall down o their knees en masse and begin to
worship. God may be great - but "safety" is rapidly gaining ground
on him.
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www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for
comments.