LifeSafer opens Wasilla store to serve Mat-Su Valley customers

WASILLA — It’s not the sort of vehicle accessory most dream of adding to their rides, but it’s a necessity for hundreds of Alaska drivers each month.

Among the long lists of costs associated with a driving under the influence conviction — including court fines, sentencing, vehicle impound, attorney’s fees and SR22 insurance — is the court-ordered cost of adding an ignition interlock device, and just that’s more than $1,000 for a year.

LifeSafer, 617 S. Knik-Goose Bay Road, Suite L, has opened a new store in the Valley to begin providing installation and service for ignition interlock devices.

Alaska LifeSafer manager Jason Verbeck said Tuesday will be the Wasilla office’s first day in operation, although an Anchorage store has been open for a few years.

He said about 10 percent of LifeSafer’s Alaska clients live in the Mat-Su Valley, so the company decided to open an office here to better serve its local customers. Verbeck said LifeSafer also plans to open offices in Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan and in the Soldotna/Kenai area this year.

“Customers were having service issues that shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

A state law passed in 2008 requires some offenders convicted of DUI to have an ignition interlock device installed. First-time DUI misdemeanor offenders must use the interlock for one year, second-time offenders for 24 months and third-time offenders a minimum of 36 months.

The change means that people convicted of one or more DUI charges can drive anywhere, as long as they pass the breath test. Previously, offenders received a limited license that restricted driving anywhere besides back and forth to work.

As long as interlock devices have existed, people have been inventing ways to defeat them, Verbeck said. And each new version of the device gets harder to fool.

People should know if they are caught in Alaska having a friend or child blow into the device for them they can face misdemeanor charges, Verbeck said.

“People have tried everything to get around it,” he said. “I’ve seen everything.”

One story that stands out about creative ways around the device, Verbeck said, involves the unwelcome truths kids tell in his office.

“One little girl told me, ‘Oh, yeah, mommy makes me blow in it every morning,” he said.

Besides their children, he said people have also used air compressors to fill balloons, which where then attached to the mouthpiece to blow a clean test. So the new interlock devices require people to hum — not blow — into them, and some units in the Lower 48 also have cameras attached that snap a photo of the person blowing into the device each time, Verbeck said.

Photos and alcohol test data are downloaded at the end of each month and forwarded to the state, which monitors offenders’ compliance, he said.

“It’s becoming big business nationwide,” Verbeck said.

Besides the court system, some parents are also installing the devices in their teens’ vehicles to help prevent drunk driving, he said. “I have several customers in Anchorage who have installed these in their teens’ cars as a preventative measure.”

But not all DUIs happen while people are driving, according to Michael Peralta, Wasilla store manager. “People have to really be careful,” he said.

Just being drunk, near your car and in possession of your keys is enough for law enforcement to charge a person in Alaska with DUI, Peralta said.

When a person makes an appointment to have an interlock installed, he or she watches a 20-minute video that teaches them how to use the device, he said. At the same time, the relay is installed in LifeSafer’s shop by a technician.

“We try to make it as hassle-free as possible,” Peralta said.

Installation is free in Alaska and the service costs $105 to $110 a month, and the company is offering $25 off its monthly service charge for Alaska customers, he said.

Peralta said a lot of the hot humming he sees happens the morning after a night of heavy drinking when someone is still drunk.

Each time a person with an interlock needs to start his or her vehicle, they first have to hum a clean air sample into the device, he said. And other tests are scheduled later, too, to make sure the driver is still sober.

A series of lights on the interlock tell users whether their hum passed, is in the warning area, or failed.

“So they know when they screw up,” Peralta said.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.