Steve, a former NATO peacekeeper in Bosnia, was bent out of shape about something. He began drinking at his favorite local watering hole, where the drinks are cheap and "they don't care how many they serve."

After leaving the bar, he attracted the attention of city police, who stopped him for driving over the speed limit after he made a left-hand turn onto Agua Fría Street.

Steve thinks he failed the field-sobriety test. "I was not in the best shape for talking to the cops," he admits. He refused to take a breath-alcohol test, earning himself an aggravated DWI charge.

The offense was Steve's first since moving back to New Mexico about nine years ago, but he had multiple DWIs in other states and admits to driving drunk every day for years. While waiting for his court date, he got an ignition interlock on his car and did some community service. By the time he went to court, he says, he "looked like a fine, upstanding citizen again." He was able to cop to a regular DWI plea, and the court ordered him to use an ignition interlock on his car for a year.

Steve started using alcohol as a teenager and hasn't totally ceased drinking and driving even after having an interlock. "I've got rules now," he says. He drinks at home, uses a designated driver or spreads his alcohol consumption over many hours. When he's riding his motorcycle, his rule is, "two wheels, two beers, two hours."

"I'm not going to be the cause of a drunken-driving accident," he says.

Steve's also a believer in the ignition interlock. He recalls a night when he had been drinking and got locked out, forcing him to leave his vehicle in a Park & Ride lot. He went back for it the next day. "I had to make other arrangements," he says, "but I think it is one of the best tools, no matter how much a pain in the butt it is."

Backed by statistics

Not all "interlocked offenders," are fans, but the breath-analysis device seems to be helping to lower the DWI accident and injury rates in New Mexico, where the first mandatory law went into effect in 2003. The interlock has been required of all offenders since 2005. The state currently has the highest number of interlocks installed per capita in the United States.

Alcohol-involved crashes declined 31 percent between 2002 and 2007, according to statistics compiled by Richard Roth, executive director of Impact DWI. And, Roth found, deaths in the state dropped from 219 in 2004 to an estimated 143 in 2008.

Obviously, the ignition interlock is not the whole explanation for the improvement in drunken-driving statistics in the state. For one thing, first-time offenders are responsible for as many as 70 percent of the deaths in alcohol-related crashes. Public awareness, alcohol education, tougher laws and extra enforcement statewide all helped contribute to the decline, experts say.

But data from January 2003 to August 2007 also show far lower recidivism rates among interlocked offenders. They have a 75 percent lower re-arrest rate than non-interlocked offenders.

Among first-time offenders, 6.1 percent of those without interlocks were re-arrested for DWI within a year compared to 1.4 percent of those whose cars were equipped with ignition interlocks.

Interlocks are also having an impact on repeat offenders, often considered the most resistant to sanctions. For example, 10.2 percent of those with four or more offenses, and no interlock, were re-arrested within a year compared to 2.4 percent who have interlocks.

"Whether (the device) is responsible for the whole effect in New Mexico is open to question," Roth admitted. But what is "unassailable," he argued, is the recidivism rate.

Tim Hallford, former president and CEO of Adobe Interlock, also believes there is a direct correlation between the drop in alcohol-related accidents and injuries and the mandatory interlock law. Revoking licenses, jailing offenders, sentencing them to treatment — all those strategies, he claims, hardly changed the crash rate.

But interlocks are keeping drunken drivers off the roads. He said he once looked into how many 0.08 BAC tests were recorded on the 3,300 or more interlocks his company had installed. In one year, he said, there were 30,000 blows at 0.08, the national standard for impaired driving, or above. Those are people who weren't on the state's highways because of the interlock.

Becky Beardsley, DWI program coordinator for Santa Fe County, agrees ignition interlocks are having an impact on death and injuries, but "it's a multipronged approach. It takes a little bit of effort all around."

By-passing the device

That's the good news. The roads in New Mexico are somewhat safer.

The bad news is that 50 percent of people convicted of drunken driving are getting away with not installing an interlock — even though it is mandatory after the first offense.

In Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, which has had more success than other jurisdictions in imposing drunken-driving sanctions, Beardsley said, about 40 percent are thought to be waiving the interlock.

They get around the law by signing affidavits claiming they don't have a car, or access to a car. The agencies monitoring them don't have sufficient staff to investigate whether they are all telling the truth, although Beardsley said the Magistrate Court routinely checks Motor Vehicle Division records to see whether the offender has any vehicles registered in his or her name. The compliance monitor might also require documentation that a car or truck is disabled or a notarized statement saying the offender will not be allowed to drive another vehicle in the household.

Even interlock defenders are still drinking and driving, some by getting their friends to blow into the device when they are inebriated.

Kenny Martinez, a five-time offender who is now sober, said that while he was inside an Allsup's making a purchase recently, his cousin, who was sitting in the passenger seat, saw a boy, no more than 10, blow into the interlock for his adult driver.

Roth believes such reports are overblown. Re-arrests would be higher, he thinks. "It does happen," he said, "but if it happened often, we wouldn't get the reduction in drunk driving" the state is experiencing.

Also, blowing into an ignition interlock to start a car — or to keep it running — is a learned activity. Depending on the model, it usually involves sucking and blowing, or blowing and sucking. Most users say it's tricky at first. "You have to get it just right. All conditions have to be perfect," Steve said. "The more stressed you are, the harder it is."

Starting a car with an interlock involves respiratory power as well. Roth said he tested a class of middle-school students and only one boy, big for his age, had enough lung capacity to start the car.

Another way to skirt the law is by having the interlock installed in an old clunker and driving another family car or a friend's vehicle.

In theory, at least, people who do that should get caught. Once a month — or once every couple of months, depending on the contract — the car must be taken to the interlock installer for service where all the data about every single "blow" is downloaded and violations forwarded to the court or probation authorities. The installer is also supposed to check the odometer as well. Low mileage and the absence of "blows" should send up a red flag and prompt an investigation.

Beardsley said compliance monitors check the violation reports and might notify courts if they see an unusual pattern of lockouts.

The percentage of people trying to avoid getting the interlock lock might be high, but another way to look at it is that half of them are complying and that is helping to significantly reduce death and injury in alcohol-related crashes. "How effective would it be if 75 percent of them had it. I'd sure like to see that happen," said Hallford.

Closing loopholes

Although New Mexico's interlock legislation is a model for the rest of the country, advocates are trying to close some remaining loopholes.

A new law that went into effect three months ago is expected to reduce the number of people seeking waivers, claiming they don't have access to a car. Starting July 1, convicted drunken drivers have been required to complete a period of six months or more of alcohol-free driving in an interlocked vehicle before they are eligible for an unrestricted license. Beardsley and others believe this law will greatly reduce the number of people continuing to drive illegally.

Rachel O'Connor, the governor's DWI czar, said the new message is, "Get it now, or get it later. That's the environment we wanted to create."

A bill that would have required convicted offenders, who claim they aren't driving, to supply evidence of sobriety during probation, however, failed in the last session.

Four jurisdictions in the state, including the city and county of Santa Fe, already allow authorities to seize the vehicles of DWI offenders. In the city, for example, drivers charged with their third drunken-driving offenses could forfeit their vehicles. But a bill to extend that concept statewide was opposed by the defense bar and died in the Legislature this year.

And a bill that would require vehicles of DWI offenders to be immobilized or interlocked between arrest and adjudication also failed. Each year, more than 2,000 offenders in the state have a subsequent DWI arrest before the previous case goes to court, but lawmakers balked at punishing people who haven't been convicted of a crime, Roth said. He expects the measure to be introduced again although, "I'm not holding my breath."

The governor is supporting a bill in the next session calling for mandatory three days in jail after a first conviction, but it carries a price tag of $2 million or more, and lawmakers might decide the state can't afford it.

Technology might also ultimately help cut down on the number of people who try to get around the interlock by asking their friends to blow or claim they weren't behind the wheel during a lockout. The latest Breathalyzers can take a photo of the person blowing into the device.

Interlock critics

Comments from interlocked offenders in Roth's surveys run the gamut from "It sucks" and "Drunks will skirt the system somehow," to "I think the interlock saves lives" and "It's been a life-changing turn of events for the better."

Most complaints concern so-called "malfunctions," the cost of installing and servicing the interlock, and the distraction of having to periodically blow into it while driving. Some people indicate it is "inconvenient and embarrassing," while others complain that the punishment is too harsh for first offenders.

There are many reports of people who couldn't start their vehicles even though they say they weren't drinking. Martinez said the machine "violated" him after he ate spicy food, snacked on an order of french-fried onion rings and even sipped a Sprite.

Mouthwash containing alcohol, chiles and tangerines have also caused lockouts. Hairspray, which contains alcohol, can also prevent a car from starting.

One survey participant griped, "It can take 10 minutes to get the blow-hum pattern correct before you get a 'ready' signal." Such delays, users say, make them late for appointments.

Beardsley said an Albuquerque company (True Touch) got a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to work on the design of a steering wheel that would detect alcohol through the sweat glands in the hands of the driver.

But new technology won't necessarily make the devices cheaper. Installing an interlock is unquestionably costly. A convicted drunken driver might have to shell out $1,000 over the course of a year for the installation, monthly servicing and removal, and the $100 annual upfront contribution to the Indigent Fund (to help pay for interlocks for those who can't afford them).

But that's the best part of the interlock law, according to Hallford. Not only is it saving people from getting arrested, but "the offender pays for most of it. I love that part."

Installers say their biggest complaint is how long it takes to get reimbursed from the government for installing interlocks in the vehicles of those who can't afford the full cost.

Saving lives

Interlocks clearly don't stop everyone. Some people continue to ignore the law and the punishment meted out to them. Like Delano T. Vigil, of Guadalupita, N.M., who was arrested for the 22nd time last August for driving while intoxicated. New Mexico State Police reported his BAC was 0.393.

"I don't think it works that well for chronic drunks. They find ways around it. There are people with 20, 30 DWIs who are still driving. It happens all the time," Steve says.

The interlocks definitely seem to work for more casual drinkers — who also tend to comply with other sanctions such as victim impact panels, community service and treatment.

Never a big drinker, Kelly got a DWI the night she was celebrating a new job and an upcoming trip with shots at the old Señor Lucky's. She blew a 0.12 at the police station and installed an interlock prior to her court date. She hasn't gotten behind the wheel after drinking alcohol since then. "I just won't do it. I just think it is stupid," she said.

For some, like herself, it's hard to say if the interlock was simply positive reinforcement. She was already motivated never again to be arrested for DWI. However, a good friend, a chronic substance abuser, has had multiple interlocks but continues to drink and drive and is now in rehab. "For people like that, nothing stops them until they kill themselves," Kelly said. "That's my unprofessional opinion."

Hallford is convinced that ignition interlocks are effective, more powerful than billboards with Erik Estrada warning motorists about DWI checkpoints. Not many people are left who don't know it's wrong to drink and drive, he said. Spending money on educating youth about the risks is smart, but if New Mexico applied more resources to "what's effective, you'd see even better results," he said.

At the same time, he's proud of the state. "We led the way for once on something having to do with DWI. There definitely are people walking on this Earth that wouldn't be."

Contact Anne Constable at 986-3022 or aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.

BY THE NUMBERS

20,230 DWI cases adjudicated in N.M. in 2008
6,186 Interlocks installed in 2008
8,891 People driving with interlocks as of Dec. 08
46,044 Alcohol-involved crashes in 2008, in 6 counties*
1,786 Fatal DWI crashes, 2008, in 6 counties*
6 counties are Bernalillo, Doña Ana, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Juan and Santa Fe


DWI SANTA FE COUNTY 2008

1,305 Arrests
764 Convictions
505 Interlocks installed
233 Alcohol-involved crashes
Source: Impact DWI. Go to www.ImpactDWI.org


DWI NEW MEXICO

31 % Decrease in alcohol-involved crashes from 02-07
39 % Decrease in injuries in alcohol-involved crashes 02-07
22 % Decrease in alcohol-involved fatal crashes 02-07
35 % Decrease in fatalities in alcohol-involved crashes 04-08
Source: Impact DWI. Go to www.ImpactDWI.org


LIVING WITH AN INTERLOCK

Interlock law in a nutshell: Ignition interlocks are mandatory after the first and subsequent drunken-driving offenses. The interlock must be installed for one year after the first offense, two years after the second, three years after the third. After the fourth offense, the penalty is a lifetime ignition interlock with a five-year court review.