Odds and endsLawmakers want cars equipped with alcohol detection devices
A bill sponsored by nine U.S. senators would provide $60 million over five years to speed up research into devices to detect alcohol on a driver’s breath, through touch on the steering wheel or through other methods; car owners could select the option when buying a new vehicle; the device would prevent the car from starting if the driver is impaired
Americans may soon be able to buy cars that are automatically equipped with an alcohol detection device that would prevent the car from starting if the driver is impaired.
A bill sponsored by nine U.S. senators would provide $60 million over five years to speed up research into devices to detect alcohol on a driver’s breath, through touch on the steering wheel or through other methods. Car owners could select the option when buying a new vehicle.
The Star-Telegram reports that a nationwide restaurant trade group opposes the bill, saying that because the devices would have a margin of error, they would have to be set below the legal blood-alcohol level of 0.08.
“The bill’s sponsors and supporters claim the alcohol detectors would be voluntary and set at 0.08, but there is a mountain of evidence showing that their true goal is to put alcohol-sensing technology in all cars as original equipment, set well below the 0.08 level,” said Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute, which represents more than 8,000 restaurants. “Putting alcohol detectors in all cars would effectively eliminate Americans’ ability to have a glass of wine with dinner, a beer at a ballgame or a champagne toast at a wedding. We all want to get dangerous drunk drivers off the roads, but to do this we should focus on policies that target drunk drivers, not all Americans.”
Supporters say the devices could save thousands of lives a year.
Alcohol detection devices such as ignition interlocks are often used in Texas and other states as a condition of probation for drunken-driving offenders — but that’s after the fact.
“While we’ve made good progress over the last decade in reducing drunk driving … it continues to be a primary cause of fatal crashes in my home state, and across the country,” Senator Tom Udall ( D-New Mexico), the lead bill sponsor, said in a statement. “This legislation will help keep Americans safe on the road by spurring the development of new technologies to prevent — and hopefully eliminate — drunk driving crashes in the future.”
More than 10,800 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in 2009, according to data provided by Udall’s office. About 9,000 deaths could be prevented with technology to keep impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel.
The bill’s formal name is Research of Alcohol Detection Systems for Stopping Alcohol-related Fatalities Everywhere, or ROADS SAFE. It would authorize $12 million a year for five years for the program.
The money would come from existing funds at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Distilled Spirits Council and other groups have expressed support for the bill.
