A major concern if you get any drunk-driving notation on your British Columbia driving record is whether you’ll end up having to get a blowbox in your car. The blowbox, which is commonly referred to as an interlock device, is connected to a vehicle’s ignition system. The driver must provide breath samples to the blowbox to keep the car running, first at the start and then periodically while driving.
If you have a restriction on your BC driver’s license that prohibits you from driving a car that doesn’t have an interlock blowbox, then regardless of the circumstances, you can only drive a vehicle that has one.
The history of the blowbox in your car
When the BC Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) scheme was introduced in 2010, the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles required everyone who received a 90-day IRP or 90-day Administrative Driving Prohibition (ADP) to get the blowbox in their car. We looked at the law and knew that the Superintendent was exceeding his jurisdiction by doing this, so we started an action in BC Supreme Court to stop this. Kyla Lee, AKA IRP Lawyer, drafted the court documents and we here at Acumen Law filed and served them on RoadSafetyBC. The BC Government gave in fairly quickly and about 11,000 BC drivers had the blowbox removed from their cars.
After that, the Superintendent started making some people get the interlock in their car and not others. Much like the circumstances where you get a Driving Prohibition Letter, (https://vancouvercriminallaw.com/driving-prohibition-letter) RoadSafetyBC wrote to each driver and notified them that they were being referred to the Ignition Interlock Program (blowbox program). Drivers were given a period of time to make submissions for why they shouldn’t be required to get a blowbox.
For our clients, we started making these submissions and further defining the law. The good thing was that more and more drivers were succeeding in our challenges to the interlock referral. The problem was that it was costing the government a lot of money to go through all of the reconsideration applications.
In each case, a delegate of the Superintendent had to weigh the evidence submitted by the lawyer on behalf of their client and render a written decision. The government did not like that. To get around this they designed a much more rational system based on the individual’s driving history or other sometimes unusual factors.
Mandatory Criteria Matrix for the blowbox
In February 2016, the Government imposed regulations to make it more certain whether you get a blowbox in your car. A certain number of Remedial Program Points are assigned for each type of alcohol or drug “event” recorded on your driving record. No single event in a 5 year period will lead to the requirement of a blowbox in your vehicle but if you have more than one, in many cases a minimum 6 months with the interlock will be required. The Superintended of Motor Vehicles maintains residual discretion to invoke a blowbox requirement if there are other grounds, such as the driver showing up with indications of alcohol consumption while attending the compulsory Responsible Driving Program class. If this is the case, the Superintendent’s delegate will be viewed as properly exercising their discretion to force to you get a blowbox in your car.
The one exemption in the law
The blowbox regulations include one exemption, that being a legitimate medical condition that impedes the ability of the driver to provide the necessary breath into the device. This is an issue of satisfying the Superintendent’s delegate with a supporting opinion.
The best plan: Succeeding in your drinking driving case
Of course, the best thing is to succeed in your drinking driving case. We’ve been defending 90-day Administrative Driving Prohibitions for 20 years and IRPs since the day they came out. IRP lawyer Kyla Lee has successfully defended thousands of drinking driving cases. If you have a drinking driving case, don’t delay. Call Kyla today.