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Last Updated: March 15, 2008 - 3:24 PM
Anti-DWI technology has flaws and merits.
About a year ago Leonard Gomez, owner of Santa Fe’s LA Interlock, decided to conduct a fruity experiment on the auto breathalyzer devices he sells for a living.
“So I had five oranges, and I put them on the windowsill for five weeks,” Gomez reminisces to SFR. “Keep in mind they were in the sun where it was heated.”
TruTouch could provide the next wave of technology to keep drunk drivers off the streets. (Photo courtesy TruTouch Technology.) |
Gomez ate one per week and blew into the device each time. On the fifth orange he registered a .077 blood alcohol concentration. A measly .003 more and that ripe orange could have made him, well, install one of his own ignition interlocks. “Just from that one orange!” he says.
And the experiment wasn’t over.
“After I ate it, I rinsed my mouth with water and blew a triple zero.”
Gomez tells the story as a way to illustrate one of the many cautions he routinely issues to his clients after they’ve been sentenced to install an interlock as the result of a drunk driving conviction. The cautions include to avoid
File photo. |
using too much cologne or perfume, hairspray or even nasal sprays, not to mention anything that might ferment (fruit) or contains lots of yeast (sourdough bread).
While the available technology seems to have a few bugs, state lawmakers continue to expand the scope of the current law that requires the device for DWI offenders.
On Feb. 15, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted unanimously to expand the reach of mandatory ignition interlocks. If it becomes law, out-of-state residents applying for New Mexico driver licenses would be required to install alcohol-sniffing interlocks if they have been cited for DWI anywhere in the country on or after June 17, 2005.
That’s the same date ignition interlock devices—breathalyzers being virtually the only game in town—were made mandatory for all New Mexico residents upon even a first DWI conviction.
The House bill now moves over to the Senate, where the prospects for a speedy approval look good. That’s due, in part, to the quick results policy makers can point to in the wake of the state’s landmark ignition interlock law in 2005.
Compared with that year, alcohol-related fatalities in New Mexico in 2006 dropped by 11.3 percent.
One Santa Fe native who was arrested for DWI in the last year provides anecdotal backup for the encouraging statewide stat.
“I’m not saying I like it. It’s expensive. About $80 bucks a month,” the interlock user, who requested anonymity, says.“But I choose to not drink and be able to drive my car. The interlock has kept me in line.”
The ongoing anti-DWI crusade also has created a vibrant market for ignition interlocks. Santa Fe has four vendors already. Gomez says he currently has 260 clients. LifeSafer, just one of several companies operating in New Mexico, has 11 franchises across the state.
And that vibrant market has spurred entrepreneurs to figure out how they might improve upon the current technology—and join the competition.
TruTouch Technologies, an Albuquerque-based firm, has developed a machine that can measure blood alcohol levels by shining a light through the skin and analyzing what bounces back. No need to blow into anything, and the technology also verifies the testee’s identity.
Late last year TruTouch was awarded $500,000 in federal funding to help develop the technology. (Time magazine also named TruTouch alcohol testing technology one of the Best Inventions of 2006, along with hypoallergenic cats for cat-lovers with allergies.)
TruTouch CEO Jim McNally tells SFR that a future device capable of being connected to a vehicle’s ignition, perhaps triggered by a driver’s palm touching the steering wheel, is about two to three years away from store shelves.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving is on record favoring the push for higher tech solutions. Speaking at a DWI prevention conference in Santa Fe last year, MADD CEO Chuck Hurley said that “emerging technology is one of the most promising and potentially effective approaches to eliminate drunk driving in this country.”
After being told about TruTouch Technologies, LA Interlock’s Gomez sounds like he might look into franchise opportunities. “That would definitely be a good technology,” he says. “If they can come up with a unit like that, that would be great.”
© Copyright 2000-2008 by the Santa Fe Reporter
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