Ignition interlock requirements in Ohio

Ohio offers a first-time OVI offender unlimited driving on a device, with half the suspension and no jail. Everyone else waits out a hard-suspension window first, and every route ends with 60 violation-free days.

Two routes onto the device

Ohio puts an offender on an interlock through two different doors, and they lead to very different licenses. One is limited driving privileges under section 4510.13 — driving restricted by purpose, time and place, with or without a device. The other, open only to a first-time offender, is unlimited driving privileges with a certified ignition interlock device under section 4510.022 — no restriction on where or when, but only in a vehicle with a device.

The first-time offender's option: unlimited privileges

A first-time offender — someone suspended for a first OVI conviction under the listed divisions — “may file a petition for unlimited driving privileges with a certified ignition interlock device during the period of suspension”, in the same court and manner as a limited-privileges application. Anywhere the court could grant limited privileges, it may instead grant unlimited privileges on a device; and it cannot grant them in a period where limited privileges are barred.

What the offender gets in return

Three things follow from the grant. The court may reduce the suspension “by an amount of time not greater than half the period of suspension.” The court “shall suspend any jail term imposed for the OVI offense” — though it keeps jurisdiction, and a breach of the order brings the jail term back. And the registrar issues a restricted license on the court order plus a certificate signed by the installer, printed with the interlock restriction on its face.

No driving before the license

Driving on the grant before the restricted license is issued is a strict-liability offense, punished as driving under suspension. The order alone is not enough.

The section also adds a court cost of two dollars and fifty cents to every order, which the judge may waive only where the offender is indigent and all court costs are waived, and allows a second, discretionary cost of the same amount.

Limited privileges: the hard-suspension windows

For everyone else, section 4510.13 sets a period at the start of each suspension during which no limited privileges may be granted at all, and then says when a device is required for the rest.

• First OVI offense: no privileges for the first 15 days, or 45 days if the offender has a prior section 4511.194 conviction within ten years. The court may waive the 15 days where there is no such prior and the offender took the chemical test. After that the court may require a device.
• Second offense: the first 45 days. After that, if the conviction is alcohol-related, the court shall require a device for the remainder of the suspension.
• Third offense: the first 180 days, then a device on the same terms.
• Fourth or later, or a felony: the first three years, then a device.

Test refusals

An administrative license suspension for refusing the test has its own windows: the first 30 days for a first refusal (90 with a prior 4511.194 conviction in ten years, and then the device is mandatory), the first 90 days for a second, the first year for a third, and the first three years for a fourth. From the second refusal on, an alcohol-related arrest means a device for the rest of the suspension.

Restricted plates

For higher-tier convictions and the high-concentration divisions, limited privileges also come with the condition that the vehicle display restricted license plates issued under section 4503.231.

What a violation costs

Section 4510.46 defines an “ignition interlock device violation” narrowly: the device stopped the offender starting the vehicle either because it was tampered with or circumvented, or because it found alcohol in the breath sample above the level that blocks a start. The manufacturer monitors every device installed for an offender and reports violations to the court and the registrar.

Continuous alcohol monitoring

On a first violation, or on driving a vehicle without a device, the court may require a remote continuous alcohol monitor. On a second, it must, for at least forty days; on a third or later, for at least sixty.

Doubling, and the sixty-day rule

The court may increase the suspension, and the period of interlock-only driving, “by a factor of two” — but never beyond the maximum suspension the court could originally have imposed. Where a violation falls within sixty days of the end and the court does not double, the suspension and interlock period are extended to end sixty days after that violation, and again for each later one. Either way, the registrar may not reinstate the license unless the suspension has been served and there have been no violations in the sixty days before the application. The offender can appeal an increase within fourteen days of the notice; the hearing is limited to whether the violation in fact occurred.

Other people, other vehicles

An offender may not ask anyone else to blow into the device or start the vehicle for them, nobody may do it for them, and no unauthorised person may tamper with or circumvent the device. Each is a first-degree misdemeanor.

An offender on either kind of privilege may drive a vehicle owned by their employer without a device, but only when required to in the course and scope of the job, after the employer has been told about the restriction, and with proof of that notification in the vehicle. A business the offender partly or entirely owns or controls is not an employer for this purpose.

The filing that runs alongside it

Ohio's proof of financial responsibility is a one-year filing under chapter 4509 at 25/50/25, counted from the imposition of the suspension. It is filed with the Ohio registrar of motor vehicles and runs on its own clock; it does not wait for the interlock period, and the interlock period does not wait for it. A driver who does not own a car can meet it with an operator's policy. The Ohio SR-22 page covers the filing.

What this page does not cover

The OVI sentencing tiers in section 4511.19 and the device certification rules adopted by the director of public safety are in provisions this site has not read for this page. Device prices are set by manufacturers, not by statute.

Common questions