The Interlock Device Program in Yukon

In the report rating each of the provinces and territories of Canada regarding the ignition interlock device, Yukon came in eighth place with a score of C-. Here is the assessment done by the report.

While the ignition interlock device does exactly what it is supposed to do, which is prevent the car from starting or moving if the driver blows in it with a BAC of over .02, some requirements are lacking. First, the territory has no specific technical features that are required per say for the device. It was noted that there should be a mechanism in the device that would keep the driver from making somebody else blow in it and making the car start or other tricks like that.

The program will never be forced on anybody, even people with multiple drunk driving offenses. It is always don e voluntarily by the offender, which is something a little frowned upon by the raters. But the officials do encourage the offenders to take the program by reducing the period of license suspension if they follow the program. But one things that did not please the raters is the fact that nobody can force the driver to continue the program beyong the minimum time required in the program. So if a driver has not yet learned his lesson, he cannot be forced to continue the program longer.

A few things were lacking according to the raters in the report concerning the Yukon police force. First, they do not have the right to randomly stop vehicles and perform license check and such. Plus they are not trained to spot an ignition interlock device nor are they able to tell if it’s actually working fine.

So there are some things that need to be worked out in the province of Yukon for it to be completely optimal.

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