Ethics & Religion
Column #2,077
June 2, 2021
How To Reduce Drunk Driving Deaths
By Mike McManus
Five years ago a 15-month old boy, Liam, was being pushed in a
stroller through a pedestrian crosswalk in suburban Los Angeles by his
15-year-old sister-in-law. The pedestrian light was green, but a car
driven by a drunken driver, a 72-year-old woman, smashed into them.
They were rushed unconscious to a hospital. Liam died but his relative
survived and began a slow physical recovery from her injuries and even
slower emotional recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder and
survivor's guilt.
The boy was one of 10,497 people whose lives were taken by a drunk
driver in 2016.
Fortunately, technology is available that can virtually end drunken
driving. The law should require that ignition interlock devices be
installed in the cars of convicted drunk drivers. Such people would have
to blow into a device which measures their blood alcohol content and
prevents drunks from being able to start their cars.
In fact, technology exists that monitors vehicle movement with systems
such as lane-departure warning and attention assist, driver monitoring
systems that monitor the driver's head and eyes, to determine whether a
driver is under the influence, and if so, prevent the vehicle from
moving.
Congress has the power to virtually end drunk driving by passing the
Halt Act (H.R. 2138) in the House and the Ride Act (S.B. 1331) in the
Senate. These bipartisan bills would mandate a rulemaking by the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that would lead to a
safety standard to equip all new cars with drunk-driving prevention
technology.
Maryland is a state which has blocked passage of such a law, thanks for
one man, Rep. Joseph F. Valiario Jr, Chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee in Annapolis. (He is also a trial lawyer who defends drunk
drivers in court when he's not defending them in the legislature.)
While other states have added muscle to their drunk driving laws, which
has helped cut the number of liquor-related fatalities on the nation's
roads to a decades-long low, Maryland, beholden to the liquor lobby,
hardly budges.
Vallario is refusing to allow a vote on the legislation which would
require that breathalyzers be installed on the dashboards of vehicles
belonging to people convicted of drunken driving. The devices, known as
ignition interlocks, prevent drivers from starting their cars unless,
having breathed into a tube that yields an analysis of the alcohol level
in their bodies, they proved to be sober.
Maryland has had a law on the books, but owing to Vallario's influence,
applies only to drivers who are stopped while falling down drunk, with
blood alcohol connect nearly double the state's threshold for drunken
driving. In a 180-pound male, that would mean drinking a six-pack of
beer, or six shots of hard liquor, in the space of an hour.
Twenty-four other states, plus parts of California, require the devices
for people whose BAC crosses the lower threshold, which means drunk
enough to impair driving ability. In those states, liquor-related
driving fatalities have fallen significantly, and in some cases,
steeply.
Since a substantial number of liquor-related deaths involve people whose
alcohol intake is less than the higher threshold for requiring the
dashboard devices, there's no doubt that tougher laws would save lives.
By contrast, in Maryland's anemic law, the vast majority of drunk
drivers are excused with a slap on the wrist after their first offense,
thanks to a state law that allows probation before judgment. And
research suggests that before an impaired driver is ever stopped by
police, he's probably driven drunk dozens of times and gotten away with
it.
Chuck Hurley, a Marylander who has advocated around the nation for
tougher laws on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, says his
experience in Maryland, and with the power of the liquor lobby in
Annapolis, is unique. "I have lobbied in 40 states, and I have never run
into this level of lock by the good old boys," he says.
It is time to steeply reduce drunk driving with mandated breathalyzers
in cars of those convicted of drunken driving.
_________________________
Copyright (c)2021 Michael J. McManus, a syndicated columnist and past president of Marriage Savers. To read past columns, go to
www.ethicsandreligion.com. Hit
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