‑Proof of sober‑■ Personal use

How to prevent drunk driving
If you drink alcohol, you will be mechanicallyunable to drive.
We spoke to families who had alcohol interlock devices installed intheir personal cars.
The person who was asked to have it installed was a son who wasworried about his 81-year-old father who was drinking and driving.
In the same way, he spoke candidly about the background andstruggles leading up to the introduction of the system, hoping that it
would be helpful for those who are concerned about the drinking
problems of family members and people close to them.

『please arrest my father』
The ﬁrst thing I did was to contact the police and say, ̀̀My

father is driving with alcohol, so I want you to arrest him immedi-

ately. If possible, I would like you to take up his driver's license ordisable. A police oﬃcer then replied, “We can't arrest someone
for drunk driving unless he is currently on crime if front of us. We
think that age like 77 years, why does not he put his driver license

Equipment usedback to , please talk with suﬃciently in family members” They

didnʼt pay any attention to our matter and didʼnt give us any
further advice.

Then , I next contacted the public health center and asked that

I have a serious trouble “ repeatedly drunk driving by my father.
What could we do or what would we have public services? “However, the public health center said, “ It may be diﬃcult at thatmy father was an alcoholicage. Does your father have a intention to stop drinking ? Even if
family members want him to have medical services for alcohol-My father is 81 years old.

He worked in construction until 65 years old, and continued asa part-time worker until 77 years old. He has been drinking

alcohol for a long time, but after he quit his job. He had been
drinking all the time and getting more seriously drinking day byday. My father has a kind of heart disease and has been hospi-

talized three times due to arrhythmia. He stops drinking alcohol

temporarily after being discharged from the hospital under theguidance of his doctor.But he starts drinking alcohol just afterism, anyone can not forcel him to do so .The person does nothave that intention.'' It becomes a human rights issue. When Iasked, ̀̀If this situation left as it is , drunk driving may cause harm

to others, is it still not possible to treat this addict? ʻʼ The answer
was, ̀̀The public health center cannot respond solely to a request

only from the family without that personʻʼ, After all I realized thatno matter who I contacted with serious trouble of my family , noone would be sympathetic to us or even give me advice.

being well. Then, my mother contacted me and asked me to tell
him strongly “Do not driving after drinking”, because she actuallysaw

coupleoftimes

hisdriving

out

afterdrinking

alcohol.When my sister or I warn him, he instantly say, ̀̀I under-stand.ʻʼ However, there is no actual action involved. No matter

who warned him, he wouldn't stop drinking, or rather, hecouldn't stop drinking, so I had a suspect that my father was analcoholic.

When I researched alcoholism, I found that my father's behav-ior matched the symptoms of alcoholism. From then on, I has

been much worry about focus on “stop drunk driving” rather
than persuade to stop drinking alcohol.

Now in my country Japan, current vertically divided government

has a stance of not doing work outside its jurisdiction and notintervening unless something happens, so problems such as
alcoholism,drunk driving, and driving by the elderly are complicat-ed. I felt discouraged and troubled because I felt that there was noway to resolve the issues involved, and that there was no place toturn.

I don't think the number of addicts would increase if addicts

and their families could always talk about quitting drinking. I wasalso worried about my father's health, but I also couldnʼt help but

worry every day about the possibility of him getting into a drunk
driving accident and kill someone. I also fully aware that if some-

one killed by my father, our family would be blamed for neglecting
my father. However, any kind of public solutions were all closed
and we were really stuck in all directions.

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‑Proof of sober‑■ Personal use

Accidents involving the elderly areaproblem in urban areas.

At ﬁrst , anyway,I asked “ please return your drivers licenseback to police considering your age ”, He understood returning

driver license once.But one day when he talked with his friend

My father was selﬁsh person. He says, ̀̀Accidents involving

as same as old with him, she said (she is a his karaoke friend

the elderly are a city thing. In a rural area like here, wherewith good and bad time) “ Why are you giving it back?ʻʼ you

Even if they drink and drive, it's only a small amount, so itʼschanged his mind and he told that he wouldn't give his license

be serious with drunk driving at all with replacing into agoing to drive, please stop drinking!'' Don't stop drinking andthere are no people or cars, accidents wonʼt happen.

are still young and can drive, so it's a waste, isn't it?ʻʼ That talkOK .ʻʼ When I try to discuss about drunk driving ,but he neverback until next license updating. I told my father, ̀̀If you're

elderly driving issue.

drive a car!

family (my mother, sister, and I) told him to stop drinking

the alcohol interlock.

ing in secret..By that time, my father had been rejected all

Tokai-Denshi inc, that I was able to install the demo machine I

drink alcohol and not to drive with drinking alcohol but one

Since my father installed an alcohol interlock, he seems toBesides, my father with Alcoholic lies so much. My wholestrongly, he tells a lie that he does not drink and ﬁnally drink-begged.

If so, deﬁnitely install an alcohol interlock! ” I

That's when my father ﬁnally listened to me about

It wasn't until February 2024, one year since I ﬁrst contacted

words from families. Even so, I repeatedly warned him not to

had always wanted.

day we ﬁnally got into a serious ﬁght and was told not tohave refrained from drinking on days when he has to drive.

has become diﬃcult to do anything.

He should have stopped drinking when go to hospital , but

come to my house again, which worsened our relationship. ItI think If father continue to drink and drive , we will have noHowever,my fathersʼ alcohol consumption has not decreased.
there are no days without alcohol .

choice but to have his car repossessed. However, life in the

countryside is very inconvenient without a car. The nearest

convenience store is 1km away, and it's 5km to get into town.
Also, actually father is old, it may be natural that he doesn't

understand why he drink as much as he wants to drink. In
the worst case , I could take away his driver's licenses andprevent him from driving, but since driving a car is directly
connected to their daily life. I fear and curious about thatlosing their car and life without going outside by a car could
lead to dementia. I suggested that he take a taxi and I would

pay for it, but he said he didn't want to spend money on it
and he strongly refused to accept that idea.

Eﬀect of alcohol interlock
At the beginning of installed an alcohol interlock, my father

complained about how troublesome it was to use. I think hewas probably frustrated because there were many times whenalcohol was detected, the engine wouldn't start, and hecouldn't ride. He showed some resistance several times, but hehave no intention of removing it himself, so he has been reluctantly using it.

Know about alcohol interlock
On February 26, 2023, I was anxious about my father's

drunk driving and how we would react to this serious situa-tion . So while I was doing some research, I found a company

whichmanufacturing

Alcoholinterlockdevices”

Tokai-Denshi inc”. I immediately contacted Tokai-Denshi .

They kindly listened to my story. But when I tried to provide
information about vehicle and installation to Tokai-Denshi I

got into a serious argument with my father. My father strongly
objected to install alcohol interlock device.So

I had nochoice and once stop to realize this idea.But I never give up

to install alcohol interlock device on his car. A year later, I
was able to talk to my father again.

It seems there were several times when he couldn't drive nomatter how many times he tried a day, but he was aware ofunder the inﬂuence of alcohol and was convinced that there
was nothing he could do about alcohol interlock function. Inthe past, when he went to karaoke, I was worried because hecouldn't tell me if he was drinking alcohol. But now I am now
in relief of his going out driving with peace of mind because It

may be possible to cheat by delivering someone”s breath, butI donʼt think my father has the wisdom to do kind of cheat. I
once requested Tokai-Denshi

to show me the facial photo

data that was being measured, but all of them were of myfather.

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‑Proof of sober‑■ Personal use

My father is an elderly person. afterthatI hear that elderly people often continue to drive even aftersurrendering their license. I feel sorry for people whose only
connection to society is through a car (driver's license), andwhose life is limited to places they can walk to. Moreover,when living in the countryside, a car is still important. It is notrealistic to leave your familiar place and move to a city withwell-developed transportation facilities as you get older. I
think the best way is to mechanically disable driving afterdrinking.

To be honest, my father ﬁnds the alcohol interlock to be anuisance. It also seems like something he wants to keep

hidden, not telling his neighbors or friends. I think that only

our family, other than my father, is happy with the installationof the alcohol interlock. However, I no longer naggingly warn
my father that he drinks too much, and I no longer try to get

him to stop drinking, so I feel that my father's stress has eased
a little in that respect.

In urban areas, one vehicle per family may be suﬃcient, butin rural areas, one vehicle per person is the norm. As infrastructure advances and people in rural areas ﬁnd it easier toget around, I think more people will consider surrendering
their driver's licenses. Also, as a social issue, I would likepeople to stop drinking alcoholic beverages with alcohol
content of 9% alcohol, etc., which can encourage addicts todrink.

When I was researching addiction, there was a time whenI struggled to get my father to stop drinking, but I no longer
feel that way. I think it's ﬁne for him to drink if he want

to. There are probably many people who are worried like me.
If someone in your family likes to drink and drive, you should
install an alcohol interlock. This is because it not only makes
the person feel safe, but also the people around them,including themselves. If there is a risk that the road traﬃcrules cannot be followed properly, I think it is necessary torely on a machine and ﬁnd a way to convince the person to
install the alcohol interlock.

The next license renewal will be in one and a half years.

Considering his age, I would like to ﬁrst monitor whether hecan drive safely, and then decide whether to let him drivewith the condition that he continues to wear the interlock.

Further hope for alcohol interlock
Peace of mind by installing an alcoholinterlockI feel that the alcohol interlock system, which physically

prevents drunk driving, is an ally for families. This is a device

that allows my father, who is otherwise healthy except for hisdrinking problem, to continue driving. It can also relieve theanxiety of those watching. However, looking back at theproblems in our familyʼs case, I think that only a few people
are able to actually install alcohol interlock.

Since it is aneﬀective device for preventing drunk driving, families ofaddicts would like to put car makers install it as standard,

although installation of alcohol interlock may be have various
issues and bars.

Tokai-Denshi Website【alcohol interlock.com】
https://alcohol-interlock.com/

I think that purpose of installing an alcohol interlock for

Company drivers and individual drivers is diﬀerent. If you arewearing it for personal use, like our family, you can immedi-

ately see the data stored in the alcohol interlock, such as anelderly monitoring device, and you can observe driving condi-tions etc. atany time. I'm glad that happens. Currently, inorder to view the data, you need to purchase a dedicatedapp, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it is alittle out of reach for individuals to buy it. Tokai Denshi's
alcohol interlock was originally intended for business use bycorporations, and it seems that it is designed for administra-tors, but in the future, a way to easily view data for personal
use will be added. I hope that.

Cooperation with coverage

As a means of protecting your family,
A family in Mie Prefecture that introduced an alcohol interlock system
Tokai-Denshi oﬃcialYouTube 【Introduction example】
Story of a family installing an alcohol interlock【ALC-ZEROⅡ】
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXm5jBgeTQ※Unauthorized reproduction, excerpts, or editing of texts and photos is prohibited.

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