Illinois DUI Lawyer Blawg
There are six categories of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in Illinois. 625 ILCS 5/11-501 These include driving under the influence of legally prescribed drugs, driving under the influence of any compound that causes driving impairment (“huffing”), driving with any amount of an illegal substance in your system, even if you are not under the influence and driving with a combination of the above so that it causes impairment.
But by far the most common type of DUI arrest in Illinois involves alcohol. Under the alcohol category are two kinds of DUI.
One is DUI that causes bad driving, proven by the officer’s observations and your performance on standardized field sobriety tests (SFTS). The other is driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, which does not require proof of actual impaired driving due to alcohol.
There is one type of breath test device that provides what is knowns as a “Preliminary Breath Test” (PBT). It is a small, handheld device that the users blows into.
The results of the PBT cannot be used as evidence of your blood alcohol content (BAL) or to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that your BAL was .08 or higher. 625 ILCS 5/11051.5 Before the police can arrest a driver for DUI, they must establish probable cause that the driver is under the influence.
The tools available to the police for maklng this determination include standardized field sobriety tests which includes the horizontal gaze nystagimus (HGN) where the officer passes a small object in front of the subject’s eyes, the one-legged stand (stand on one leg for 30 seconds) and the walk-and-turn (take 9 steps, turn around and take 9 steps back). In addition, the PBT law states that if the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe the person is under the influence, he may request a PBT and consider the results of it in reaching a probable cause determination and in requesting further tests.
The further tests include a blood draw or blowing into a more sophisticated breath test device. Unlike the PBT, the results from this device are admissible to prove the DUI case itself and there are driver’s license penalties stemming from taking the test and registering above .08, as well as far refusing the test. 625 ILCS 5/11-501.1
A refusal or a blow of at least .08 results in a suspended driver’s license. If there have been no other DUI arrests in the previous five years, the driver is eligible for a special driving permit, other than the first 30 days of the suspension, known as a Monitoring Device Driving Permit (MDDP).
The MDDP requires installation of an Interlock Ignition Device (IID) at the driver’s expense. 625 ILCS 5/6-206.1 Any violations of the MDDP result in additional IID usage. And IID fees.
If the driver is convicted of the DUI offense, the Secretary of State is required to revoke all driving privileges. 625 ILCS 5/6-205. In many situations, driving privileges during the revocation requires use of an IID (when the IID is employed in the case of a revocation, it is known as a Breath Alcohol Interlock Ignition Device (BAIID)). The provider of the device collects a fee.
The Secretary of State proposed Senate Bill 924, which if passed, would require more extensive use of the IID. And the more the IID is used, the more fees the providers of the devices collect.
The reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions about the answer to the question, who really benefits from the IID requirements?
Related posts:
Illinois Secretary of State adopts rules requiring integration of cameras in Interlock devices Illinois DUI Lawyer Blawg, May 31, 2013
Under what DUI situations is the Ignition Interlock Device (IID) required in Illinois? Illinois DUI Lawyer Blawg, February 1, 2013