At the same time many eyes were trained on the debt-ceiling debate, a broad range of safety, auto, insurance and alcohol industry groups and companies called on Congress to pass legislation to provide funding for an advanced drunk-driving detection research program. The groups suggest that such a program could prevent more than 8,000 highway fatalities each year with a resulting nationwide economic cost savings of approximately $130 billion annually.
In a letter to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica and Ranking Democratic Member Nick Rahall, the groups called for inclusion of the ROADS SAFE (Research of Alcohol Detection Systems for Stopping Alcohol-related Fatalities Everywhere) legislation in the safety portion of the surface transportation measure under development by the committee. The bill has bipartisan support in the House and Senate, and a version of the measure was approved last year by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation as part of broader legislation.
The letter states that the legislation “would authorize the transfer of currently unused safety funds at a rate of $12 million annually for five years to support and expand the ongoing DADSS (Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety) research program currently being undertaken by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and leading automakers.”
The goal of the research program is to develop a publicly supported technology for vehicles that will instantaneously and passively detect if a driver is drunk (above the legal limit of .08 BAC) and prevent the vehicle from starting. “The technology must also be extremely accurate, inexpensive and a non-invasive optional safety feature,” the letter added. Some dozen industry groups and individual companies were signatories to the letter in support of the research.
