Kids and Car Breathalyzers

As parents, we try our best to make sure our children’s needs come first. We also like to indulge them, especially when they imitate us during the course of the day. It isn’t uncommon to see a parent in a parked car with a small child in their lap pretending to drive. But some parents take things too far. Through the haze of intoxication, plenty of parents have actually insisted those same children go from pretending to drive to blowing into the car breathalyzer in order to circumvent the device and skip the sober driving.

That means that these parents have not only asked their children to do something illegal, but have endangered those same children.

Kids can ride in vehicles with car breathalyzers without a problem. Older kids who have a driver’s license can even use the car breathalyzer if they need to drive. However, kids must not blow into the device on behalf of the parent or any other adult. A child’s curiosity is one thing, but only an adult should actually use the device. Otherwise, that adult is putting lives in danger.

In most states circumventing a car breathalyzer by asking another person to blow into the device is punishable by removal from the program, an extension of the time requirement or further criminal charges. Asking a kid to use a breathalyzer is just asking for even more trouble, especially when the same effort could be made to find a safe way home.