[DoughtyOne]

I understand where you are coming from, but I don’t see it that way. These devices have some merit or they wouldn’t have passed muster for decades.

In 1972 our highway death toll topped out at 54.5 thousand per year. In 2014 it was 32.7 thousand. In 1972 we had roughly 122 million (guesstimated based on data linked below) registered vehicles on our roadways. In 2014 that figure had grown to 260.3 million.

Considering that 54.5 thousand deaths could easily have more than doubled as the numbers of vehicles more than doubled, we could be experiencing close to 120 thousand deaths on our highways each year right now. Instead, as noted above we have reduced the deaths to 32.7 thousand (2014).

This means that there are perhaps 90 thousand fewer deaths each year due to the hard efforts of the public and law enforcement.

Drinking and driving is no longer a wink-wink offense. It is an exercise of playing Russian roulette with the gun to the head of the occupants of your own and other people’s vehicles.

I am not happy about roadside check-points. I don’t like the idea of it either. Still, all things considered, I do approve of them.

Your vehicle insurance alone is impacted incredibly by a $44 billion dollar (alcohol related) loss each year due to accidents and deaths.

Then you think about the impact on 90 thousand more families each year, the lost of a spouse, parent, child, and extended family members, and employees, or associates..., these deaths are a horrible cost to millions of us each year.

None of us knows if we are alive today or not, because some person driving under the influence was pulled over and taken into custody. 90 thousand of us are each year.

That outweighs any inconvenience to me. Pull me over.

death stats

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

registered vehicles on our roads stats

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_11.html

alcohol (blood level of 0.08% or higher) involved in 31% of fatal vehicle accidents

http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812231

The cost of alcohol related vehicle accidents is $44 billion anually

http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

[Glad2bnuts]

correlation is not causation. The reason deaths are lower are seatbelts, airbags, disc brakes, better tires, better headlights, taillights, brake lights and windshield wipers. In 1972 a very high number of cars had vacuum powered windshield wipers. You slowed down, the wipers nearly stopped. Bias ply tires that when cold got very stiff, when hot they blew out...and by blow out I mean BOOM and you lost control. The institution of breathalyzers has had a small effect on highway deaths, not enough to trade in our right to travel without fear.

I was stopped and detained roadside for an hour just 3 years ago for a DUI. The final result of being harassed, I was let go because I finally got the cop to give me a breathalyzer, and I blew a 000. He had me do the roadside test, the alphabet, everything he could think of. The reason, I left a casino a few minutes before, and he was hunting for some tax dollars. I didn’t swerve, speed, tailgate or go too slow. I was detained in pursuit of taxes. I would rather people die, than our ideal of Liberty, that is the plain truth.

[loungitude]

Don’t forget the stats-skew. I don’t have data, but at one time (1990’s, and perhaps until today), if a sober driver got into a crash, and there was a drunk in the back seat, it was recorded as and alcohol-related crash. Similar with “alcohol-related” fatalities..

[SomeCallMeTim]

Seat belt laws have done FAR more to save lives..

DUI laws are revenue generators.

Breathalyzers are BOGUS. I couldn’t be happier for the people of Oklahoma.