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Impaired driving solution is within reach

Making roads safer often involves doing a lot of little things. There’s no single reason crashes occur and no single way to protect people from death and injury, says David Zuby, executive vice president and chief research officer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Tucked into the sprawling bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 is a congressional mandate for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to require every new passenger vehicle to be equipped with a system that prevents an alcohol-impaired driver from operating it. Installed in every vehicle, this technology could save more than 9,000 lives per year.

The technology itself is closer to being ready than most people realize. But because few consumers would pay extra to equip their vehicle with an impaired driving prevention system, automakers have had little incentive to bring it to market. A regulatory requirement would push it over the finish line, says Zuby.

One system already being tried out in fleets was developed by the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) project, a partnership between NHTSA and the auto industry. The DADSS breath-based system is in some ways similar to ignition interlocks that are often installed by court order on the vehicles of people convicted of driving while intoxicated. However, unlike those interlocks, the passive system doesn’t require the driver to blow into a tube or take any special action; it simply analyzes the driver’s exhalations from normal breathing and prevents the vehicle from moving if it determines the driver has had too much to drink. The consortium is also working on a touch-based system that would analyze the driver’s skin.

Other technologies have been developed to detect signs of erratic driving, fatigue, or distraction. IIHS is encouraging manufacturers that offer partial automation on their vehicles to include robust driver monitoring that can issue warnings if a driver isn’t paying attention to the road and ultimately stop the vehicle if those alerts are ignored. The same types of systems could be used to detect signs of impairment and keep the vehicle from moving any further.

But much must happen before this all becomes reality. NHTSA will need to research the breadth of potential technologies before determining what tests and criteria to use to evaluate manufacturer compliance. It’s also expected to come up with a cost estimate for equipping all new vehicles and compare that with the total societal cost of illegal impaired driving ($296 billion in 2019 by NHTSA’s calculation). Finally, it must publish a proposed regulation, weigh public comments, and make revisions as needed. The process doesn’t lend itself to shortcuts, which is why it’s crucial that the agency proceeds without delay.

Fewer people drink and drive today than in past decades, yet those people are responsible for an outsize number of fatalities, says Zuby. In a survey published by researchers from Johns Hopkins University, 65% of respondents agreed that impairment prevention should be standard on all new vehicles, making it far more popular than speed limiters or cell phone blocking technology. Let’s hope that NHTSA works hard to ensure rapid, effective, and equitable implementation of the mandate.

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