TIRF to study behavioural patterns of interlocked DUI offenders

The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) will conduct a study on the behavioural patterns of interlocked offenders and on the features of effective programs.
Under an interlock program, a small, hand-held, breath-testing device is fitted to a vehicle’s ignition. A driver must blow into the device; if alcohol is detected and is higher than a pre-set limit, the vehicle will not start or continue to operate.
The study will analyze the interlock data from as many as 20 jurisdictions in the United States. From these analyses, researchers will look to answer a number of important questions regarding offender behavioural patterns, including the following:
•Are there different learning curves according to type of violation?
•Is there a specific profile for persistent offenders who are non-compliant?
•Are there different types of persistent offenders?
•How does length of participation affect performance? And
•Does the learning effect differ according to gender, age, mandatory and voluntary participation, and other such parameters?
LifeSafer contracted TIRF to conduct the study. Additional funding was provided through a team grant award to Dr. Thomas G. Brown, Dr. Marie Ouimet and Dr. Louise Nadeau from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.