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Alcohol
Interlocks
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Interlock
Conditions
Interlock
devices are breath test
machines hard wired onto the
ignition system of your
vehicle. They will not allow
the vehicle to start unless a
0.00% breath sample is
provided.
For
people found guilty of drink
driving with a reading of
0.07% or more, or for a
subsequent drink driving
offence, a Magistrate has
power to make it a condition
of your new licence that your
vehicle is fitted with an
alcohol interlock device, at
your cost. This means you are
licensed to drive a motor
vehicle provided it has an
authorised interlock device
installed in it.
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Interlock
Periods
for offences since
10.10.2006
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Your
latest
reading
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1st
offence
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2nd
offence
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3
or more
offences
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Under
0.07%
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No
Interlock
applicable
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At least 12
months
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At least 4
years
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0.07%
to 0.15%
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P-Platers:
at least 6 months.*
Under 26 y.o.: at least 6
months*
All Others: Discretionery 6
months.
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0.15%
or more,
Refusals.
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At least 6
months
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At least 4
years
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*
Asterixed provisions apply to offences
committed after 1 January 2007
only.
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Interlock
Periods for offences prior to
10.10.2006
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Your
latest
reading
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1st
Offence
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2nd
Offence
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3
or more
offences
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Under
0.15%
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No
interlocks
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At least 6
months
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At least 3
years
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0.15%
or more, Refusals
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Optional 6
months
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At least 3
years
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Repeat
offenders: Mandatory Interlock
condition. The court must impose an
interlock condition if you were
previously found guilty of a drink
driving related offence in the period
of ten years prior to the date on which
you make the application for licence
restoration, as set out in the above
table. Prior
offences that are more than 10 years old at the date of the application
for relicensing are not taken into account. So if on the day you front
the magistrate you have a prior offence that is more than 10 years old,
it can be disregarded. In April 2008 I saw an application for
relicencing where the applicant had committed two offences within a
month of each other in 2006. The Magistrate treated one of those
offences as a second offence and proceded to impose a mandatory
interlock condition. That was an error, because a person can not commit
a second offence unless he or she has already been found guilty of the
first offence. Each of the two offences should have been treated as
first offences and an interlock should have been optional, not
mandatory. The applicant had a right of appeal, but it can take months
for an appeal to be heard, meanwhile he has an interlock condition on
his licence.
First time
offenders: If you are over 0.07%
you may find an interlock condition
will be imposed on your licence. Full
licence holders between 0.07% and 0.15%
are subject to discretionery
interlocks. The courts must impose
interlocks on first time offenders who
are disqualified after refusing to
comply with a police demand such as
refuse a breath test, and on
probationery licence holders and
drivers under the age of 26 years old
at the time of their last
offence.
Who is not
eligible: Interlock conditions can
not be imposed on first time offenders
with readings under 0.07%. It is
arguable that they can be given to
first time offenders who have not
produced a reading (i.e. refusal
cases).
Once the minimum
interlock period has expired the driver
can make application to the court to
remove the interlock condition. The
court and police will get a report
including a printout of the functioning
of the interlock and a report of the
drivers usage of the vehicle and any
failed attempts to start the car.
Failed attempts to start your car will
have a devastating effect on your
application to have the interlock
condition removed - you may as well not
bother wasting your time unless you can
show at least 3 to 6 months of zero
BAC. The relicencing and interlock laws
are unnecessarily complicated. You can
get some more info by checking the
links below (some of those pages claim
to have comprehensive summaries of the
interlock conditions. The tables above
ignore some historic variables because
a comprehensive table needs about 10
rows and 10 columns to cover all
possibilities). In some cases people
who perform badly at assessments might
be advised to seek an interlock
condition as a means of regaining their
licence.
Cost:
There are several providers of
interlocks and they set their own fees.
Typically there is an installation fee,
a monthly service fee and a removal
fee. Expect about $130+ per
month.
Interlock
removal: When your minimum period
of interlock has passed, you can make
an application to the court to have the
interlock condition removed from your
licence. You need to give the police
and the court 28 days notice of your
application, so go to the court 28 days
prior to the end of your minimum
interlock period. A fee applies. You
will need to go through another
assessment and report much like the one
you went through to get your licence
restoration order (which is undertaken
by the same type of people), and it
will also include a report on yor
interlock use and compliance based on
data provided by the interlock
provider.
When you go to
court for the interlock removal
application, the court will receive a
print-out of every time the interlock
was used. If the magistrate finds that
you attempted to use the vehicle whilst
in excess of 0.000%, your application
will very likely fail. That is because
you are on a zero limit and you need to
prove that you are capable of complying
with a zero condition before the
interlock will be removed. The
magistrate will likely tell you to come
back in 6 months if you have any
positive results on the interlock.
Zero
Condition
All people who
have an interlock condition on their
licence are subject to a 0.00%
prescribed alcohol limit for a period
of 3 years from the date they are given
permission to be relicenced, or for the
duration of the interlock period,
whichever is longer.
Legal
Assistance: Most people complete
all the above steps without the need to
engage a lawyer. If you fail in your
application to be relicenced or have an
interlock removed, or desire to avoid
having an interlock fitted, you may
wish to seek legal
assistance.
Problems
with current Interlock
laws
Victorian legislation requires the
court to make it a condition of being
relicensed (if you fall within the
above circumstances) that the person
not drive a motor vehicle unless it is
fitted with an Interlock. The
legislation (s.50AAA
- 50AAH Road Safety Act)
does not require the person to install
an Interlock on any vehicle. The
legislation does not require a person
to own a car or to install an interlock
on any car. Therefore if you don't own
a car you would think that you simply
can not drive any vehicle while your
licence is subject to an i condition.
So if you have a 6 month interlock
condition and no one will let you put
an interlock on their car, you won't be
able to drive unless you buy a car and
put an interlock on it. The rules of
interlock use require that no one else
use your interlock. If I let you put an
interlock on my car, then I would not
be able to drive the car. If I am
allowed to drive with a BAC of 0.04%,
then the Interlock would stop me from
using my own car. Also, it would record
a positive result which would be
attributed to the person with the
i-condition, and which would be
recorded and brought up in court to
stop that person having the interlock
removed at the end of the 6 month
period. When a person wants to have an
interlock condition removed from their
licence, they have to make an
application to the court. S.50AAB(5)
Road Safety Act obliges the person to
obtain a report from an interlock
supplier and requires the court to take
into account that report. The report
must:
cover
all of the period, being at least 6
months, since an approved alcohol
interlock was installed by an
approved alcohol interlock supplier
in a motor vehicle driven by the
person during that period; and
includes an assessment by each
approved alcohol interlock supplier
who maintained or authorised a
person or body to maintain the
approved alcohol interlock during
that period on the extent to which
the person complied with the
manufacturer's instructions for
using the approved alcohol
interlock.
So in order to get an interlock
condition removed, the person must have
an interlock installed on a vehicle for
at least 6 months. Parliament tells the
court not to remove the interlock
condition unless you get a satisfactory
report. If you do not own a car, you
have no ability to have an interlock
installed. So parliament seems to be
saying that you can not get your
licence back unless you buy your own
vehicle, install an interlock in it,
and don't let anyone else drive it. If
you hope to drive someone else's car
then you may never be able to drive
again. If you drive taxis for a living
and do not own your own car, then you
may never get a chance to work as a
driver again. With an interlock
condition you can not hire a car,
participate in car-sharing, or drive
your employer's vehicles. These issues
will not affect you if you are rich
enough to own your own car and have
absolutely no regard to the detrimental
environmental consequences arising from
personal car ownership. In my opinion,
the government should be encouraging a
reduction in car ownership by making it
easier to car-share.
Interlocks make car-sharing impossible.
More
info on car sharing.
If you are finding it difficult to
get an interlock condition removed
because you do not own a car, then you
should seek legal advice as these
difficulties can be overcome.
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