Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Currently motorists are only breathalysed if they're pulled over - but one conference is to call for the mandatory fitting of breathalysers into all vehicles. PA Archive
Your Say

Poll: Should 'alco-locks' be mandatory on all vehicles?

An event in Dublin this week is set to call for the universal use of in-car breathalysers, disabling a car if the driver fails it.

IT’S REPORTED this morning that a conference being held in Dublin this week is set to call on transport minister Leo Varadkar to sanction the mandatory use of so-called ‘alco-locks’ in all vehicles.

The mechanisms contain a built-in breathalyser which would disable the vehicle if the driver fails the immediate test. Drivers would be forced to take the test every time they try to start the vehicle.

“We want them fitted before something bad happens,” Paddy Matthews of Matthews Coach Hire  said, in a report which appears in a number of today’s papers. Varadkar has previously said he would consider them for repeat motoring offenders.

Today we’re wondering whether you think they’d be a good idea – or if asking people to prove their capability of driving impinges on civil liberties and would be too inflexible.

Should ‘alco-locks’ be mandatory on all vehicles?


Poll Results:

Yes - on all vehicles (1080)
Yes - but only on public vehicles (538)
No - not at all (469)
No - but they should be voluntary (361)

Your Voice
Readers Comments
89
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.