According to a new study, installing devices in new cars to prevent drinking and driving could actually stop 85 percent of alcohol related deaths on the roads of the U.S., saving tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars from injuries and damage.
Over 15 years as older cars without the alcohol ignition interlock come off the roads, they could be replaced with sobriety screening systems in new vehicles that could stop 59,000 crash fatalities, 1.25 million non-fatal injuries and over $340 billion in injury related costs, according to the study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
"Alcohol interlocks are used very effectively in all 50 states as a component of sentencing or as a condition for having a license reinstated after DUIs, but this only works for the drunk drivers caught by police and it doesn't catch the people who choose to drive without a license to avoid having the interlock installed," said lead author Dr. Patrick Carter, an emergency physician with the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.
Most drunk drivers make about 80 trips under the influence before they are stopped for a DUI, Carter said. "If we decided that every new car should have an alcohol ignition interlock that's seamless to use for the driver and doesn't take any time or effort, we suddenly have a way to significantly reduce fatalities and injuries that doesn't rely solely on police."
Carter and colleagues used records of traffic accidents and fatalities to determine how many involved drunk driving and then estimated how many could be avoided simply by fitting new cars with alcohol interlock devices. These devices detect blood alcohol levels in drivers in an effort to prevent them from driving. If the drivers blood alcohol level is above a certain threshold, they car will be unable to start.
Over 15 years the interlocks would save approximately $343 billion. Assuming that each of these interlocks costs $400 per vehicle and is 100 percent accurate, they will pay for themselves in just three years.
"The technology is at this point pretty strong, and when implemented at a population level will be negligible in terms of the sticker price of a car," said Jacob Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and research for AAA. To be widely adopted, it will need to be a rapid test that's reliable and doesn't inconvenience drivers, added Nelson, who wasn't involved in the study.
"It's so hard to catch everybody," said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, who wasn't involved in the study. "With this, we can stop them from driving in the first place, and we can catch a broader group of people who are getting behind the wheel because they think they're not impaired."
