 Feds Explore Interlock to Prevent Drunken Driving
August 23, 2007
An interlock device requires the driver to breathe into it to start the engine. If the driver's breath alcohol content is over the legal limit, the vehicle will not start.
There are technological as well as social hurdles to overcome before every car and truck could be equipped with the devices however. It may be especially difficult to win public acceptance among people who do not drive while intoxicated.
Robert Strassburger, vice president for safety of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said that more than 80 percent of Americans drink very lightly or not at all and will not go along with devices that interfere with the normal operation of their motor vehicles.
Automakers are cooperating with federal safety officials on a five-year research effort to determine whether “transparent” devices can be installed on vehicles that would prevent people from driving while impaired.
Interlock devices are mandatory for repeat offenders in 19 states. Throughout the country, the ignition interlocks have been installed in about 100,000 cars.
There are 1.4 million drunken driving arrests the United States each year however and as many as 1.2 million people have been convicted of drunk driving, with many of them still behind the wheel.
The federal government is pushing the device to stop people from repeatedly driving drunk according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Nicole Nason. "What you will likely see is the Department of Transportation communicating directly with states to encourage greater use," Nason said.
By some estimates, the devices could save between 8,000 to 9,000 lives every year. People who drive drunk make only about 0.5 percent of all vehicle trips, but that those trips account for about 40 percent of the 43,000 annual U.S. highway deaths.
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