953 nut 52,193 #1 Posted September 10, 2016 9-10-1897 First drunk driving arrest On this day in 1897, a 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building. Smith later pled guilty and was fined 25 shillings. In the United States, the first laws against operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol went into effect in New York in 1910. In 1936, Dr. Rolla Harger, a professor of biochemistry and toxicology, patented the Drunkometer, a balloon-like device into which people would breathe to determine whether they were inebriated. In 1953, Robert Borkenstein, a former Indiana state police captain and university professor who had collaborated with Harger on the Drunkometer, invented the Breathalyzer. Easier-to-use and more accurate than the Drunkometer, the Breathalyzer was the first practical device and scientific test available to police officers to establish whether someone had too much to drink. A person would blow into the Breathalyzer and it would gauge the proportion of alcohol vapors in the exhaled breath, which reflected the level of alcohol in the blood. Despite the invention of the Breathalyzer and other developments, it was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that public awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving increased and lawmakers and police officers began to get tougher on offenders. In 1980, a Californian named Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, after her 13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver while walking home from a school carnival. The driver had three previous drunk-driving convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days earlier. Lightner and MADD were instrumental in helping to change attitudes about drunk driving and pushed for legislation that increased the penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. MADD also helped get the minimum drinking age raised in many states. Today, the legal drinking age is 21 everywhere in the United States and convicted drunk drivers face everything from jail time and fines to the loss of their driver’s licenses and increased car insurance rates. Some drunk drivers are ordered to have ignition interlock devices installed in their vehicles. These devices require a driver to breath into a sensor attached to the dashboard; the car won’t start if the driver’s blood alcohol concentration is above a certain limit. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DougC 2,641 #2 Posted September 10, 2016 In the 1980's the Chevrolet dealer I worked for signed a contract to install a breathalyzer devise made by a company called Intoxalock and called me into his office to tell me congratulations, I had been chosen to install these devises on the owners vehicles........ Most of the vehicles were as you can imagine worn out and beat up and about half of them you couldn't open the drivers door..... I made all my connections inside the vehicle under the steering column into the ign. switch wiring as opposed to the other installers I was informed stringing wire to the starter solenoid which would be exposed to the weather and quickly failed and left the owners with a no start condition whether they were intoxicated or sober. Intoxalock wanted to make a installation video of me installing their system which I agreed to do If I was paid my normal installation fee. They seemed to think I would spend an entire day making an educational video for them for no charge....... HA!!! With me under the dash and the camera man in the back seat filming nothing useful and asking questions like what are you hooking up now and how do you know which wire goes to the starter solenoid from the ign. switch. Needless to say I didn't win an Emmy and the film was never used for installation training...... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
953 nut 52,193 #3 Posted September 10, 2016 19 minutes ago, DougC said: the other installers I was informed stringing wire to the starter solenoid Once worked with a fellow who had this hook up on his Ford truck; if he was drunk he would open the hood and use a small jumper wire to start it! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DougC 2,641 #4 Posted September 10, 2016 He's lucky he didn't drive a GM vehicle or he would be flat on his back drunk trying to crawl under his vehicle to jumper it. I have had people show up drunk to get the system installed, you could smell it on their breath, and even two hours later when I was done with the install and had blown into the device myself to make sure it was working their breath test failed and the vehicle would not start...... Talk about a mean drunk....... The service manager has had to call the police more than once to haul them out of the shop...... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
