WSMV Channel 4 Tracking is limited on new DUI law

Tracking is limited on new DUI law

There's no way of knowing right now how many drunk drivers aren't following the new Tennessee law.

It requires an interlock device to be installed on a car's ignition.

If you get a DUI in the state of Tennessee, there's a good chance you will have to get an ignition interlock installed on your car and before you ever crank up you will have to prove that you haven't had too much to drink.

Mike Embry installs interlock devices at Cartronics in Brentwood.

"We average about three a day," Embry said.

The sophisticated technology means you have to blow, before you can go and then there are rolling retests as you keep driving.

Under a new law passed this year a judge can order someone to get an ignition interlock device installed for several reasons, like if you are convicted of a DUI offense where your blood alcohol level is .15 percent or higher, if a minor is in the car when charged with DUI, or if drinking and driving is the cause of a traffic accident.

Anthony Johnson is an example of how this new law works. After police say he rear ended a car on North Gallatin road last week, officers found him slumped over his steering wheel and stumbling when he got out of his car.

Officers gave Johnson three sobriety tests and charged him with DUI, making it his second charge. When officers ran his background, they realized he was supposed to have a DUI interlock on his vehicle, but didn't.

Johnson was charged for DUI and for not having an interlock device on his car.

As of November, 3,567 drivers in Tennessee have interlock restrictions on their licenses, but only 1,890 have the actual device on their car.

Trooper Ehrin Ehlert with the Tennessee Highway Patrol says, "The difference there, the number of people that have been required to have the interlock device but for example their time has expired, their six month period, a year period has expired, they are no longer required to have it, they just haven't gone and gotten their valid license."

The state doesn't have a way to track those like Johnson who are supposed to have the device, but don't. However, statistics show these devices are working.

"We are reducing the number of fatal crashes statewide. We've reduced the number of fatal crashes from this time last year by 12 percent and our DUI arrests are up almost 38 percent," Ehlert said.

State troopers even say some people keep these in their cars longer than they are ordered to because they realize how helpful they are.

Since January, Metro police have charged seven people under this new law.

The DUI interlock device is a condition of probation for some drivers who have had two or more prior DUI convictions. Those people are supposed to be supervised by a probation officer or the court.

They also have to verify with the Department of Safety that they've installed the interlock.

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