New Illinois DUI law and device allows first time offenders freedom of choice
Posted on:7/15/2009
Written By: Chris Robideaux
| A new law in Illinois gives first time DUI offenders the choice to prove sobriety every time they drive or get a suspended license in Illinois, rather than jail time. |
A new law in Illinois gives first time DUI offenders the choice to prove sobriety every time they drive or get a suspended license in Illinois, rather than jail time. The new law expands the use of a BAIID, or Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device. About 3,600 first-time drunk drivers in Illinois are seeking to take advantage of a new law that allows them to get behind the wheel again as long as they install a device in their cars that measures their sobriety.
"It could go better, but it's going well," said Susan McKeigue, executive director of Illinois Mothers Against Drunk Driving .
MADD and state lawmakers lobbied hard for the law that took effect Jan. 1 and requires first-time drunk driving defendants who want to drive while their licenses typically would be suspended to install a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device, or BAIID.
Approximately 50,000 people a year are arrested statewide for drunken driving, and about 40,000 of those arrests of are first-time offenders, said Henry Haupt, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office.