Personal breathalyzers can help people choose not to drive impaired
Ever been tempted to test yourself with a personal breathalyzer after drinking alcohol? If so, there are a few different versions on the market.
However, some are a lot less reliable than others, cautions Andrew Murie, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada.
“We support the good ones. We say very clearly they’re an educational tool,” Murie noted.
Impaired driving continues to be a problem in Saskatchewan. In 2018, Saskatchewan Government Insurance reported 739 collisions involving an impaired driver, with 359 injured victims and 43 fatalities.
According to 2017 Statistics Canada data, Saskatchewan had the highest rate of impaired driving incidents in rural areas among all provinces — almost double that of Alberta, the province with the second-highest rate.
Personal breathalyzers can give
We support the good ones. We say very clearly they’re an educational tool.
people an idea of how much alcohol may be in their bloodstream and help them make a choice not to drive — keeping in mind that the only breathalyzer that counts in court is the one police use, Murie said. On the other hand, “if you paid a buck for it, it’s probably no good,” he added.
Among hand-held models, Murie advises consumers to choose the type that can be recalibrated by the manufacturer to maintain accuracy.
However, he also cautions that consumer hand-helds don’t operate at the same temperature range as police breathalyzers. Personal breathalyzers are designed for indoor use, Murie said, certainly above the freezing point and well above the temperatures seen during Saskatchewan winters. Devices used by police can perform in temperatures from -40 C to 50 C.
Some app-based devices make calculations based on such data as how many drinks have been downed. However, Murie said it’s important to enter the proper information. It makes a difference whether a glass of wine was five ounces or nine ounces, for instance.
In a report published on the CAA Quebec website, just four out of 10 breath alcohol analyzers tested produced results in line with the model used by that province’s provincial police.
The devices were graded for both performance and ease of use. One $4 disposable got an overall grade of 45 per cent. The top-rated device, a $140 smartphone accessory, garnered 85 per cent.
However, a spokesperson for the road safety and injury prevention group Parachute Canada said it’s “still early days” in evaluating the effectiveness of consumer breathalyzers in preventing impaired driving. Valerie Smith urges people to simply not drive at all if they’ve been drinking alcohol.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., an incar system is under development called the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS). The aim is to have sensors automatically detect when a driver is over the legal limit and prevent the vehicle from moving.