Road Safety in Morbihan: the immobilizer breathalyzer has proven its usefulness!

While traffic conditions are delicate this Thursday, prefectures are calling for caution. They also sometimes note a certain relaxation among motorists. This is the case in Morbihan, where we are observing an increase in the number of serious accidents caused by drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Screenings will therefore increase. A check was carried out yesterday (Wednesday November 20) in Saint-Avé near Vannes by gendarmerie Colonel Aurélien Ardillier and his men.

Drugs on board the vehicle

“(…) Addictive behaviors are indeed becoming more and more frequent in the department. Even, dual addictive behaviors, i.e. alcohol and drugs! Earlier, we had a vehicle, which was checked by the soldiers who are present here among us. The driver tested positive for narcotics, he was driving under the influence of narcotics and moreover, the passenger herself was carrying narcotics. The vehicle has been placed in administrative detention, impounded, and they leave on foot, or they are picked up, they take the bus whatever…”

Credit : Yann Launay

Driving under the influence of drugs is on the rise, in Morbihan as everywhere in the West, but are there really more drivers who get behind the wheel while having consumed drugs, or are they more detected with specific tests? , increasingly used by law enforcement?

“If you get tested with a positive THC level, your license is suspended for six months.”

For Ronan Le Page, chief of staff of the prefect of Morbihan, there is not a “effect: more tests create more offenses”, and think “quite simply that it is a consumption that is more diffuse. We tend to point out that, in the “prevention” aspect, a discourse around drugs is always more fun, always more recreational, and we forget that at the end of the chain we can put lives in danger. We are on a very heavy license suspension scale. You might think that smoking a joint and getting behind the wheel is no big deal, but if you get tested with a positive THC level during a test, that's a six-month license suspension.”

Among drivers tested for alcohol in their blood, some will be required to take the immobilizer breathalyzer test. The system has been used for 5 years now, in the West. It is an alternative to license suspension, but does the immobilizer have real effects on road safety and recidivism?

“We concentrate its use in very specific and very supervised cases”

Ronan Le Page believes that the EAD has proven its usefulness and is satisfactory. “Every year we measure an increase in the use of the process, and this is a guarantee of its success. The people who benefit from this system already know that there is an outstretched hand from the public authorities and are very vigilant in the proper use of the EAD, on the other hand we concentrate its use in very specific and very supervised cases. . You must not have been responsible for any traffic offense in the previous five years. You must have more than seven points on your driving license and you must not have… committed other offensessuch as the consumption of narcotics or the hit-and-run, as we observed this weekend in Lorient.”

Is there no way to unplug it, or find a solution? We asked the question to Thierry Le Balc'h, workshop manager at the Riso garage, in Vannes, one of the Morbihan garages approved for these installations.

Is the immobilizer breathalyzer reliable?

“Generally, it's the same people who put them together, and if it's been unsoldered and resoldered or if there's been any tinkering or moving of anything, they see it right away… We can't not tinker. Unlike the systems we see on buses, where you only need one breath, you need two, that is to say that between five minutes and half an hour, the device will sound. The offender is forced to stop, turn off the engine and repeat the breath into the breathalyzer.. Most don't take risks, it serves as a lesson to them because it's still expensive.”

The cost of an immobilizer breathalyzer can exceed 1500 euros.