Self-Incrimination

Ignoring Affiliate objections that the bill would significantly erode the privilege against self-incrimination, the General Assembly has made it a crime for a driver to refuse to submit to a breathalyzer test if he or she has been cited once before for not taking the test. The bill was pushed along by media reports that Rhode Island’s drunk driving fatality rate is the highest in the country. Earlier this year, the ACLU released a detailed report debunking these reports as myth, but it had little effect in stopping this problematic bill. Legislators were a little more cautious in dealing with other troubling drunk driving measures. Mirroring its position in past years, the House took no action on Senate legislation allowing for the forced administration of blood tests on persons involved in vehicular accidents involving death or serious injury. And, after House Judiciary Committee initially approved a bill requiring all twice-convicted drunk drivers to have an ignition interlock system installed on their cars (at the cost of almost $2,000 a year), and further requiring the offender’s driver’s license to contain a notation to that effect, the House had the bill recommitted for further study. And finally, though not directly related to driving, the Affiliate succeeded in scaling back a bill that would have made it a crime for a teenager to fail to stop other underage minors from drinking.