Steve
Michigan,#2Consumer Comment
Mon, August 11, 2014
I am sorry you have lost friends to drunk drivers. It truly is a tragic thing. But you do not have to be a serial offender to get an interlock placed into your vehicle.
And what you are saying is that no one can change their ways, realize the grave mistakes they have done? They are all condemned forever regardless of circumstances behind thier convictions? Because after all, you have never made a mistake before. You have never sped in your vehicle, which if you lost control, could just as easily kill someone else.
Granted, if someone kills someone else during their drinking and drive stupidity, I can totally understand revoking their license forever. But I have also had friends convicted of drunk driving because they started their car to warm it up in the middle of winter but never moved it from the spot they parked it in at the bar. They were sleeping in the back seat. Made no matter to the cops. Car running, your drunk, rough day for you.
And Smart Start is known for ripping people off. Maybe some of them deserve it because they shouldnt ever be allowed to have a license back, but not everyone falls in that catagory.
MLogger
#3Consumer Comment
Thu, April 25, 2013
What you have experienced is nothing unusual for SmartStart. Their goal is to extract as much additional cash from you as possible at each visit. Look at all of e complaints from people being charged to replace their defective wires, tow bills, etc. i would suggest keeping a list and once your probation is over, suing them in small claims court. It doesn't really matter if you win or lose - the idea is to cost them attorneys' fees. Drag it out. File lots of discovery motions. Show them what cash extraction is all about on the losing end.
I very stupidly earned myself a well-deserved DWI a couple years ago and I had to go through all of the above. It sucks I know.
As for you Ken, if you've EVER been in an "accident" that was your fault, you have caused more damage that I ever have. I enclose "accident" in quotes because there is really no such thing. All call wrecks are caused by someone being stupid or inattentive (which is also stupid). 60% of fatal call wrecks are caused by people being stupid while stone cold sober and frankly, I'm not sure which is worse: being stupid but oblivious to it - or being stupid and fully aware of it. You can spew your self-righteous cr@p all you like, but the probabilty that you have been stupid or inattentive behind the wheel is probably close to 1, whether or not you caused a wreck. The only difference being that there seems to be some sort of moral thing cast upon DWI offenders while the other idiots on the road get a pass. Personally I think anyone who causes a car accident should have to pay higher fines, insurance, etc. than a DWI that doesn't cause damage because seriously, which is worse: actual damage or the theoretical risk of damage?
Ken
Colorado,#4Consumer Comment
Thu, January 19, 2012
For your license to have been revoked, you surely were a serial DUI offender.
I want to take this time to thank the courts for grounding you and if it were me, you wouldn't have a conditional license either.
YOU alone, chose to drink and drive, endangering all around you. I don't know if your interlock is Ripping you off or not, but live with it.
I lost 2 good friends (separate "accidents"), due to drunken drivers like you. The surviving members of their families were seriously injured as well. No forgiveness here. And no, I wouldn't trust you at all not to re-offend.