State Highway Patrol officials have unveiled three new vans to help them do random blood alcohol tests. Some people hail the efforts to get drunks off the roads… others see it as infringement on constitutional rights. The three new blood alcohol testing, or BAT, vans will help the Highway Patrol conduct more of the random sobriety checkpoints across the state. Don Otto with Missouri’s chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers sees the checks as a victory in the effort to get drunks off the highways and he reminds people that driving is not a God-given rights. But Dan Viets, a lawyer for an ACLU chapter in Central Missouri scoffs at that notion. Viets admits the US Supreme Court has upheld these type of stops are constitutional, and he realizes most law enforcement officers are doing them for the greater public safety. But he says it’s the ones that are abusing the use of the checkpoints he wants to stop.
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