21 comments
Please get with the program. Thank you.
I agree with the petitioner.
I agree with this Petition, please allow it
These companies should have to follow the guidelines with their devices. The whole program is a joke and they get by with way too much. But anyone who has any responsibility in overseeing these companies are to afraid to take on MADD to try to make any changes!
These companies should have to follow the guidelines with their devices. The whole program is a joke and they get by with way too much. But anyone who has any responsibility in overseeing these companies are to afraid to take on MADD to try to make any changes!
Please approve the petition
I support and agree with the petitioner. Please grant this petition.
I agree with the petitioner!
I am a close relative of the petitioner and fully understand that the interlock program was implemented with the idea that the devices only detect alcohol. My sober family member had this device installed in her vehicle while completely alcohol free. (for almost 2 years due to provably incorrect false positives.
Our entire extended family, since 2017, is now involved in this issue.
Your devices were contracted to detect only consumed alcohol, but that’s not how they work and your agency and the interlock industry is tricking people. Fooling people. Lying to them. My relative isn’t wrong and our family wants vasap now to do the right thing.
Please grant this petition. we need our family to be settled and for innocent Virginians to stop being persecuted.
This petition will eliminate all “false positive” fraud, while fulfilling the exact intent of the law.
Stop using the readings. You’re misusing the instrument. “Compliance” is installing the IID, and being prevented from drunk driving, but failed readings cannot be considered non compliance because the device did its one and only job. (and can’t tell between alcoholic compounds)
please ponder, absorb and grant this petition. If you choose to deny it, it will only display your lack of knowledge of instrument functionality.
in 2021 there were about 8000 iids with at least 7000 failed readings. Those are pretty terrible numbers - either you have thousands of raging alcoholics or your have a broken system and either way it’s a total failure.
the readings aren’t an alcohol readings. it’s just electricity. You guys are just totally in the wrong .
Study, comprehend and please grant this petition. Our family is tired of trying to compel this agency to simply do the right thing.
I agree with this petition, vasap removed the requirement for the devices to detect solely alcohol and in removing that, removed ALL integrity if ever it existed.
“vasap recognizes that ignition interlocks can detect alcohols other than ethanol…The term “alcohol specific” is being deleted to remove any suggested claim that ignition interlocks will only detect ethanol”
so now, literally, there is no performance standard and vasap is still using readings as if they’re ethanol.
stop using the readings against people, that’s not how this instrument works. Just ask Ken Denton.
vasap must immediately begin using this device in the manner in which it was intended
please grant this petition
I agree with the petitioner. I had an interlock and was locked out several times — while I was sober.
My case manager extended my interlock time and i had not drank for weeks, didn’t wear perfume or use any alcohol products. This system is not fair and punishes good people who follow the rules.
Rolling retests are stupid dangerous, and the whole thing is very difficult to use. And it sure seems to give false positives when you are near the end of your interlock time. hmmm
Everyone gets false positives with these things and nobody cares. i can’t afford a lawyer so i just bent over to take it.
it’s a scam.
get rid of these machines all together
First off, I don't even have to read the petition to agree with the content. Intoxalock is just purely getting away with robbery. Not to mention ruining people's lives for months at a time. Mine included.
I agree with the petition
As stated in the petition the IiD is a screening device only. Yet Virginia extends the IiD term by as much as a year for a reading low enough it cannot indicate impaired driving. Even worse - a reading of only a .02 results in criminal exposure that may result in incarceration.
Given that the devices can register non ethanol endogenously produced and external substances, this is a gross misuse of the technology and is unfair at it's core.
Do the right thing. Stop misleading the public. No one is benefitting but the IID companies and VASAP who depends on violations to fund it's very existence.
this device was wired incorrectly on my vehicle, I was blowing .113 every time I turned around 1 took 2 bites of pizza, 2nd time took 2 drinks of bottled water, 3rd time ate 3 donuts, 4th time ate 1 banana, 5th time ate 1 banana. they told me to wait 20 minutes before i drive, i delivered materials to jobsites all day, I only get a 30 min. lunch you do the math. So I went from146lbs to 116lbs in less than 8 months. Supposed to cost $100.00 a month plus calibration 1x a month plus installation fee. I've paid over $1600.00 in 8 months just to get locked out again for over a week, costing me my job.
Since we’ve gotten it, this machine has drained, two batteries, caused constant frustration and tears, and made our lives a living hell.
I agree with this petition
I totally agree with this petition. This entire program is a joke. People constantly having to get their vehicles towed & it costing them an extra $100’s or $1,000’s. It’s a real disgrace that the government runs this program and it’s in such shambles but they won’t step up & take proper steps to fix this mess!
How can a company go into a bank account without any authority and take a lump some of money. If like they said I was on auto pay. Why they didn't take any money after two weeks. I never signed a lease or even knew they had a website. The sales agent his name was Joey. Told me he would help me. But after the device was installed I didn't hear from anyone till I called about a dead battery. Then instead of helping me. All they wanted was money. Well I'm not happy with the service. But 300. Nah I want that back. Plus I didn't give anyone permission to go into my account whenever they wanted too. Worst type of service ever.
I have had this device for almost 4 years. I experienced lockouts and readings that were impossible to correctly detect based on this devices substandard engineering. The lockouts happen close to the 90 day mark where I would almost qualify to remove the device then some bogus missed blow occurs, throwing a code and starting the 90 day process over again. Many times it occurs without the vehicle turned on, no keys in the ignition, no one in the vehicle. This is clearly an entrapment to keep the cycle going so that Intoxalock (and whomever benefits from kickbacks) can continue to trap people into monthly service fees and fines. I've never seen or experienced such an enforcement of a bogus product that exploits people in a vulnerable position and literally compromising daily function and livelihoods, forcing vehicle breakdowns requiring expensive repairs, terrible customer service in such predicaments, unreliable vehicle operations, unnecessary angst for drivers trying to comply. This must be addressed and Intoxalock should be held accountable for this exploitation just to make money. This is unjustifiable and Intoxalock should be held accountable, just as the customers are!
My interlock device stopped working. I called Intoxalock and they said I needed to have the device replaced- I would have to have my car towed. I asked if they would refund me the tow money. They said yes. They gave no details on what was needed. So after I had the car towed, I asked for the email, which they provided. I emailed them my tow receipt. They have an automated response:
Hello,
We have received your documentation and are unable to approve as the receipt provided does not meet the criteria for reimbursement. If additional and/or updated documentation is provided, we would be happy to review again to see if a credit can be applied.
To qualify for reimbursement a receipt must include:
-Full Name
-Proof of payment (if the receipt does not show as paid we cannot issue a credit)
-Date of tow
-Vehicle information
-Where the vehicle was towed from and towed to
-Be clear and legible
If you have any further questions you can e-chat with us 8am – 6pm (Monday through Friday) via our website (Intoxalock.com),
Thank you,
The Intoxalock Tea
Everything that they asked for was included in the tow receipt, except the date and "paid". Of course, they never told me that they needed these things. I sent them a picture of my credit card statement showing the purchase, on the same date, and underneath was the monthly bill which came out the same day, showing this is my card, because it's connected to my account. Same generic response. They have no intention of paying it- all they do is lie and string you along. Completely criminal.
When I first became acquainted with VASAP six years ago, interlock devices were assumed by most everyone, myself included, to detect only ethanol. Why wouldn't I think that? Why wouldn't everyone? After all, interlock companies continue to tout their devices as alcohol specific.
Alcohol specific to the interlock industry is defined as any alcohol, like methanol, which is in windshield washer fluid. I have found no other organization or industry, private or governmental, in the United States that defines alcohol as anything other than ethanol sans the interlock industry.
The state assembly passed a law enabling this Commission to write policy which currently punishes all failed interlock readings with extra interlock time, many times without the benefit of a show cause hearing, based on the assumption that the devices only detect ethanol. Clients are forced to sign a user agreement with the understanding that all failed interlock readings will result in, at a minimum, an interlock time extension.
As documented in the petition, the Commission is now very well aware of the limited capability and scope of use of breath alcohol ignition interlock devices. If the Commission is to maintain use of electrochemical fuel cell technology, which through VASAP's own admission detects other alcohols, then the device readings cannot be used against a client as definitive use of alcohol (ethanol), to determine program non-compliance.
Ignition interlock devices serve one function, to prevent the start of a vehicle if a failed reading is detected. They do that very well. Once a vehicle is started, it will not stop running until someone turns it off or it runs out of gas, even if your horn is honking and your alternative light source is flashing.
An interlock device's function ceases to exist once the engine is running. A camera takes a picture of the driver upon initial start when a breath sample is provided. If a client passes their test on camera and starts their vehicle, that's where the device's designed use and purpose ends. It must now be assumed that a sober client is driving the vehicle.
Preliminary breath testers (PBTs) have been used by police for years to test suspected drunk drivers for alcohol consumption. As interlock devices, the Commission is using the same technology on suspected sober breath which can confirm sobriety but can't definitively confirm alcohol consumption.
VASAP has always misused failed interlock readings as evidence of wrongdoing and blanketly labeled failed readings as ethanol, or consumed alcohol.
The Commission has admitted that the devices detect other alcohols. Mr. Ken Denton, representing the interlock coalition, admits that ignition interlocks are screening devices and should not be used as evidence.
Some clients attempting to simply comply with the program are being punished for failed readings that are not their fault. VASAP must operate under a new paradigm, understanding that interlock compliance ends at installing and using the device properly without trying to circumvent it.
Please grant this petition to ensure that interlock devices are not being abused as an overreach of authority.
Granting this petition should also mean a reduced workload for overburdened staff. ASAP directors can reduce staffing requirements or redirect staff to satellite offices.
The VASAP Program is losing money every month and cannot support its own administrative weight. If the program maintains its current policy and structure, revenue sharing and pay cuts for directors won't be enough to save the program. There is not enough money to go around.
Rents are sky high as well as utility and gas prices, which directly affect many ASAP locations. With no ability to pass the cost of inflation on to ASAP clients by raising ASAP fees, ASAPs are forced to cut costs until there is nothing left to cut. We are at that tipping point.
Granting this petition would be the most important and brave step taken thus far by the Commission to turn back the tide of financial ruin.
Thank you for your consideration,
Dave Hites