Inaccurate IID Readings

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles imposes 10-year license revocations for ignition interlock violations. One such violation is a failing a rolling re-test with a BAC at or above .05. Under the Registry’s regulations, just a single failure of this nature will generate a 10-year license loss. Take a look at these readings:

It is beyond dispute that an individual’s BAC will decrease at an average rate of .015% per hour. This is known as the Widmark Formula and it has been judicially accepted for well over fifty years. Therefore, if the IID was actually measuring consumed alcohol, it would have taken approximately 3 hours and 28 minutes for the reading to drop to 0.00. Here, the reading dropped to 0.00 in only 3 minutes and 37 seconds. There is absolutely no way that this 0.052 reading was generated by consumed alcoholic beverages.

Such an unexplained drop in readings is reminiscent of the cross-examination of a witness conducted by the fictional character of Vincent LaGuardia Gambini in the film “My Cousin Vinny,” wherein a witness claimed that an event took 5 minutes as judged by the time it took to cook the witnesses’ grits. On cross-examination, the witness conceded that it actually took 20 minutes to cook the non-instant grits

Do you see where it says “Service Date Changed Failed retest?” That means that the customer will have to bring his vehicle to the service provider to have the lockout cleared and that will cost him probably around $50.00. This pales in comparison to a 10-year license loss but it’s certainly a moneymaker for the interlock industry.

This ignition interlock program has caused immeasurable pain and suffering by repeatedly imposing illegal and invalid 10-year license revocations.