The Interlock Device Program in British Columbia

British Columbia didn`t do so badly; the province ranked 6th in the overall rating of the Ignition Interlock Device program. Many aspects of the province`s program were analyzed to give it the final score of C.

First of all, there are many good points that the province has. One of them is the way the device is built and installed in the car. The offender`s car will refuse to start if he blows in the device and has a BAC of over .02%. Also, the province has all of the other standard qualities that the device should have. When the offenders are charged with impaired driving in BC, they are required to surrender their license, to have the fact that they have an interlock device stamped on their license. That way the officials can at once know that this person should be driving an ignition interlock car. It is also appreciated by the judges that there are some serious sanctions when a person goes against the program and violates their ignition interlock. The police officers can easily stop the cars and check for the papers and license and so can check if the person is currently on the Ignition Interlock program. The law officials are also trained to spot the device and so can recognize it and act accordingly.

There is one point on which the province of British Columbia could use some improvement. The program is mostly used for people who are repeat offenders and it is more often than not at the discretion of the superintendent. Plus, the length of time that the license is suspended is so long that often the offenders are not encouraged to follow that program. That makes it a bit harder to get a lot of people to follow the program.

^{Source: http://madd.ca/english/research/interlock2008.pdf}