BAT Mobile Coming To Mobile

Alabama Mobile Vehicle is designed to fight drunk driving.

by Steve Alexander

Published: Tue, August 12, 2008 - 7:53 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, August 12, 2008 - 8:18 pm CST

Alabama State Troopers are getting some high-tech vehicles to crack down on drunk drivers around Mobile.
They sound like something out of a movie, but they really aren't.
The vehicles are called BAT Mobiles, but "BAT" stands for Blood Alcohol Testing.
Corporal Joe Piggott said the idea originated with some troopers in Montgomery.
He said, "They (the troopers) commandeered an old bread truck and outfitted it with a breath testing instrument whereby they could go to these drivers license (checkpoints) and have their instruments ready to do the checks."
The idea grew, and Governor Bob Riley awarded more than a million dollars in grants to buy nine to use around the state.
One is dedicated to Mobile and Baldwin Counties and should arrive sometime this month.
Why are they so useful?
Piggott said, "We go out and we do our license checks in the rural parts of the county and as soon as your stop somebody you suspect of being impaired, by the time you load them up, bring them to the office, take them to the jail, you've taken away from your effectiveness at the checkpoint."
That also saves gasoline.
The BAT Mobile may arrive in time for the first Take Back Our Highways crackdown of 2008, which is scheduled for the week of August 18.
Piggott said, "It (the crackdown) was a pretty successful initiative we did last year, where we put basically every trooper in the department on the road for a week."

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