"The real possibility of eliminating drunk driving in this country is a powerful, even audacious, idea. Yet the tools are now at hand," said Glynn Birch, national president of MADD, whose 21-month-old son was killed by a drunk driver in 1988.
At the launch of MADD's campaign were the Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the Century Council, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. It is hoped that if properly implemented, this public/private partnership will lead to the elimination of one of the primary public health threats to the American family for the last 100 years.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters said, "Drunk driving is a problem that is painful and persistent, but it's also preventable. Pairing the public and private sectors for the common good is a powerful combination, one that will help us achieve real results in terms of saving lives and preventing injuries."
MADD's plan to eliminate this public health threat includes the implementation of new technologies. With emerging technology, the vision that drunk drivers will not be able to operate vehicles is no longer a dream but, with substantial research, a real possibility. Emerging technologies must be developed into effective and practical devices that will not inhibit lawful drivers.
The development of new sensor technology is already underway which would allow a vehicle to recognize if a driver is drunk, and to stop the driver from operating that vehicle. The public is overwhelmingly supportive: by a 4 to 1 margin (58 percent to 16 percent), Americans support advances in smart vehicle technology to prevent drunk driving, according to MADD.
"Enforcement is essential, but we know we'll never arrest all drunk drivers once they get on the road," said Susan Ferguson, senior vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and chair of the newly-announced Blue Ribbon Panel for the Development of Advanced Alcohol Detection Technology. "If society is to eliminate the carnage caused by drunk drivers, we must do more to prevent them from drinking and driving in the first place. Fortunately, advanced technology is being developed that may allow quick, reliable detection to do just that."
MADD, NHTSA, the auto industry and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are forming a cooperative research initiative via the Blue Ribbon Panel for the Development of Advanced Alcohol Detection Technology to help bring this new technology to market in the next 10 years through a non-regulatory, voluntary and data driven effort.
At least four classes of technology warrant further investigation by the Blue Ribbon Panel:
- advanced breath testing, both individual testing and testing for alcohol in the vehicle
- using visible light to measure BAC (spectroscopy)
- using non-invasive touch-based systems to measure BAC transdermally
- eye movement measurement technology, including the involuntary eye movements (or nystagmus) related to BAC, and eye closure that can indicate drowsiness.
