California is tightening the screws on drunk driving, and the latest move comes with a price tag that can rival a used car. Under a newly expanded ignition interlock law, Drivers who ignore court orders to install a breath-testing device in their vehicle now face a potential $5,000 penalty, along with criminal consequences that go far beyond a traffic ticket. The change turns what used to be a technical compliance issue into one of the most expensive mistakes a motorist can make behind the wheel.
The new regime builds on years of incremental crackdowns, but it marks a clear shift in how the state treats people who try to dodge accountability after a Driving Under the Influence conviction. Instead of focusing only on the original DUI, California is now targeting what happens after the party ends and the car keys come out, treating tampering with or skipping an ignition device as a serious offense in its own right.
How California’s ignition crackdown actually works
The backbone of the new policy is California Assembly Bill 366, a measure that took effect at the start of the year and significantly expands who must use an ignition interlock device after a DUI. According to reporting on the rollout, California Assembly Bill 366 officially kicked in on a Thursday at the beginning of the year, updating earlier rules that had already required many offenders to blow into a dashboard-mounted breathalyzer before their car would start. The latest version widens that mandate so more Convicted drivers, including some first-time offenders, are ordered to install the device as a condition of getting back on the road, with the law spelling out that failure to comply can lead to fines and even up to six months in a county jail for repeat or serious violations, as detailed in coverage of the California Assembly Bill.
What makes this change stand out is not just the broader list of people who must install an interlock, but the way the state is now treating noncompliance as a high-stakes offense. Earlier summaries of the law note that Perhaps most notably, AB 366 comes with teeth, spelling out that Convicted drivers who fail to install the device, tamper with it, or drive a vehicle that is not equipped with the required hardware can face a separate penalty that includes a fine of up to $5,000 and potential jail time, a sharp escalation from the administrative license suspensions that used to be the norm, as described in detail in the section on how AB 366 comes with enforcement power.
The $5,000 fine and what counts as a violation
The headline figure is blunt: a $5,000 fine for ignoring or undermining the ignition rules. California’s Tougher DUI Penalties now spell out that someone who is ordered to use an interlock and then fails to install it, tries to cheat the system, or drives a car without the device can be hit with a separate $5,000 Fine for Ignition Interlock Violations, on top of whatever punishment they received for the original DUI. That amount is not a theoretical maximum tucked away in obscure code, it is presented as a practical penalty that courts can impose when they find that a driver has violated the terms of an interlock order, as explained in a breakdown of the $5,000 fine in everyday terms.
California’s approach is part of a broader package described as California’s Tougher DUI Penalties, which frames the Fine for Ignition Interlock Violations as a way to close loopholes that allowed some offenders to keep driving without meaningful oversight. The same analysis notes that California has long taken a firm stance against drunk driving, and that the new structure is meant to deter people from tampering with or bypassing the device by making the cost of getting caught comparable to, or even higher than, the financial hit from the original DUI case, a shift that is laid out in the overview of Tougher DUI Penalties and why California is cracking down.
Who has to install an interlock and for how long
Not every driver on the road is suddenly required to blow into a tube before starting the engine, but the pool of people who must do so is growing. Court system summaries of new California laws explain that under the Traffic Law changes taking effect this year, a person convicted of Driving Under the Influence, often abbreviated as a DUI, can be required to install an ignition interlock device as a condition of regaining limited driving privileges, with the program designed to keep them from operating a vehicle after drinking while avoiding the blunt tool of permanently revoking licenses, a balance described in the section on Traffic Law changes.
Legal guides to California’s 2026 law changes add that the ignition rules sit alongside other Traffic Safety and Personal Injury Laws, such as AB 382 on Reduced School Zone Speed Limits that gives Local governments more power to slow cars near campuses, underscoring that the state is layering multiple safety tools rather than relying on a single fix. In that context, the interlock mandate is targeted at a specific group, people with a DUI on their record, but the ripple effects are broader, since family members who share a car and even employers who provide vehicles may have to adapt to the new hardware and monitoring requirements, as outlined in the overview of Traffic Safety and related updates.
Why California is pushing harder on ignition devices
California’s decision to lean on ignition technology is rooted in a long history of trying to curb drunk driving with both criminal penalties and engineering. Nationally, the first statewide drunk driving ban dates back to New Jersey in the early twentieth century, and within Four years, New York and Massachusetts followed with their own prohibitions, a reminder that the basic idea of keeping alcohol and car keys apart is not new even if the tools have evolved. In response to persistent crash data and repeat offenses, the California State Legislature has increasingly turned to interlock devices as a way to monitor behavior in real time rather than waiting for another arrest, a trajectory described in coverage that traces the path from early bans in New Jersey and then in New York and to today’s ignition mandates.
Supporters of the new California rules argue that ignition devices are one of the few interventions that directly stop an impaired person from driving, rather than hoping they make the right choice. Analyses of California’s Tougher DUI Penalties point out that despite the effectiveness of ignition interlock programs in reducing repeat offenses, some drivers still try to avoid them, whether by not installing the device, having someone else blow into it, or tampering with the wiring, which is why the state is now treating circumvention as a serious violation in itself, a rationale laid out in the discussion of why California is cracking down despite the effectiveness of existing programs.
How this compares to other enforcement trends
California is not alone in treating ignition interlock violations as more than a paperwork issue. New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law, for example, spells out a list of offenses under a section titled What Offenses Are Listed Under NY VTL for Ignition Interlock Devices, including failure to install a court-ordered device, operating a vehicle without one when required, and tampering with or circumventing the device, all of which can trigger additional criminal charges beyond the underlying DUI. That framework, laid out in detail in the explanation of What Offenses Are Listed Under NY VTL for ignition interlocks, shows that California’s move to attach a steep fine to similar behavior fits into a broader national pattern of treating circumvention as a standalone crime.
More from Morning Overview