On Tuesday, the Senate voted to approve a historic $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that—if signed into law—will have an effect on American transportation for decades to come. And thanks to section 24220 on page 1066 of the proposed bill, that transportation includes drunk driving.
The stats on alcohol-impaired driving speak for themselves:
- Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities represent approximately 1⁄3 of all highway fatalities in the United States each year.
- In 2019, there were 10,142 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in the United States involving drivers with a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.08 or higher, and 68 percent of the crashes that resulted in fatalities involved a driver with a blood alcohol concentration level of .15 or higher.
- The estimated economic cost for alcohol-impaired driving in 2010 was $44,000,000,000.
That cost includes law enforcement involvement in an impaired driving case, forensic testing if necessary, and coroner services if necessary.
That’s part of the reason why the bill mandates all new passenger cars be designed with advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology after a certain date determined by the secretary of transportation.
The bill describes a system that can “passively monitor the performance of a driver…to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired and passively and accurately detect whether the blood alcohol concentration of a driver is equal to or greater than [0.08]”—the national limit. If either of these conditions are true, the system should be able to prevent or limit motor vehicle operation.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology can prevent more than 9,400 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities annually.
A mandatory breathalyzer in order to start a car is not a new idea or even new technology. What is novel is the implementation of such a device for citizens—or cars, really—who have never been arrested for driving under the influence.
As of 2012, all 50 states in the U.S. have laws permitting the imposition of ignition-interlock devices as sentencing alternatives for some drunken drivers. The standard device comprises a mouthpiece mounted on a handheld unit and a cord that attaches to the vehicle’s ignition system and runs on the battery. The driver is required to blow into the mouthpiece to test his or her alcohol level before starting the car.
If the analyzed result is greater than the programmed blood alcohol concentration, the device prevents the engine from being started. If the sample is clean, the car will start as expected. However, after 20 to 40 minutes, the ignition-interlock device will require an additional breath sample. This fail-safe is done to prevent someone other than the driver from providing a sample. If the subsequent breath sample isn't provided, or the sample exceeds the ignition interlock's preset blood alcohol level, the device will log the event, warn the driver and then start an alarm in accordance to state regulations until the ignition is turned off or a clean breath sample has been provided.
Currently, the largest ignition interlock device providers are SkyFineUSA, Draeger, Smart Start, Guardian, Intoxalock and LifeSafer.
While the infrastructure bill is historically bipartisan, it does face an uphill battle in the House of Representatives where some Democrats are pressing for more spending and less compromise on some of the bill’s main points.
Photo: An ignition-interlock device from Intoxalock in use. Credit: Intoxalock.