When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was raving a few weeks back about a new state law that will launch a pilot program in four counties next year, requiring interlock devices in the cars of people convicted of drunken driving, Pat Ruhman wasn't exactly impressed.
Don't get her wrong. Ruhman, a retired hospital medical assistant who lives in Murrieta, agrees that steps are needed to discourage people from getting behind the wheel after drinking alcohol, to reduce the number of people who die or get injured in automobile crashes.
It's just that she doesn't believe it will work.
"It's a great idea," Ruhman said. "The only thing is, it certainly doesn't prevent people from driving drunk because they just have their friends breathe into the device."
And Ruhman speaks from personal experience.
"How do I know? I've seen it happen," she said.
Ruhman said that when she used to live in San Jose several years ago, she had a neighbor who had been convicted multiple times of driving under the influence and had been ordered to install one of those interlock devices designed to keep a car from starting when a driver has been drinking.
"He just got his friends to breathe into it," she said. "I discovered it purely by accident when I was going somewhere with these neighbors in San Jose. I saw the other guy in the passenger seat unhook this thing and blow into it. And I said, 'What are you doing?' And I thought, 'Oh my God, he is completely circumventing the purpose of the device.'"
Ruhman has been skeptical of the effectiveness of interlock devices ever since.
"Believe me, if these guys could figure it out, I'm sure other drivers will, too," she said. "I am absolutely in support of anything that prevents people from driving while they are intoxicated. But I don't know if there is a fail-safe answer.
And if there is one, she said, "It's not this."
Last month, Schwarzenegger signed into law Assembly Bill 91, sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, to OK a pilot, or experimental, interlock device program for Los Angeles, Alameda, Sacramento and Tulare counties. Schwarzenegger said then that if the program is successful at parking drivers who have been drinking in those areas, it will be expanded to all 58 counties in California.
"Drivers blow into the device and, if they're drunk, the car engine won't start," the governor said.
That is, I suppose, if it is the driver blowing into the device.
Interlock devices or not, with the holiday season upon us, it would do us all a lot of good if we would make plans now to either avoid drinking at holiday parties if we are going to have to drive home, or arrange to give up the keys and have someone else take us home.
Call staff writer Dave Downey at 951-676-4315, ext. 2623.
