Breath Alcohol Testing (B.A.T.) Mobile Unveiled at Carson Beach

On May 24 th, 2006, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey joined Colonel Thomas G. Robbins and other law enforcement officials at Carson Beach in South Boston to unveil the latest advancement to combat drunk driving in Massachusetts, an arrest processing vehicle known as the B.A.T. (Breath Alcohol Testing) Mobile.

Breath Alcohol Testing (B.A.T.) Mobile Unveiled at Carson Beach
The 40-foot-long B.A.T. mobile can travel to sobriety checkpoints anywhere in the Commonwealth and provide lighting, video taping and a place to process the impaired driver on site; in short, it is a mobile police station. The new tool was funded through a $378,000 Governor's Highway Safety Bureau grant along with $80,000 in State Police funds. State and local police will hold joint sobriety checkpoints using the B.A.T. mobile primarily during " You Drink & Drive. You Lose." mobilizations around the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends.

"This is a powerful new tool that will enable State and local police to conduct more efficient sobriety checkpoints," said Colonel Robbins. "With an average of 270 people being arrested each week across the Commonwealth for drunk driving, it is clear we need more resources to improve the safety of our roadways."

Preliminary research shows that high-risk drivers are getting the message that the Commonwealth is cracking down on drunk drivers, particularly on repeat drunk drivers. In October 2005, Governor Mitt Romney put tough drunk driving laws on the books when he signed Melanie's Bill into law.

When comparing the first six months since Melanie's Law went into effect to a similar time period one year earlier - October 28, 2004 to April 30, 2005 and October 28, 2005 to April 30, 2006 - the number of repeat offenders arrested again for OUI declined from 5,591 to 4,550, a 19 percent drop.

In addition, the number of drunk driving arrests, both first-time offender arrests and repeat offenders, rose from 6,692 to 7,234, an 8.1 percent increase. Furthermore, the number of first-time offender arrests as a percentage of the total number of OUI arrests increased from 16.5 percent to 37 percent.

To learn more about the traffic safety initiatives of the Governor's Highway Safety Bureau and Massachusetts State Police, go to www.mass.gov/ghsb or www.mass.gov/msp .