The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) are combining resources to develop a new technology to prevent drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel.
The $10 million project is currently under development as reported by the NHTSA and is expected to take approximately 5 years to be fully tested and implemented.
Nicholas Rose, our New York City accident attorney, is hopeful that the new Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) technology will keep drunk drivers off the roadways and make the streets and highways safer for other New York drivers.
One of the recent viewers of the new technology, MADD President Laura Dean-Mooney, welcomed the progress of the DADSS research effort, saying, “Auto makers have stepped up to help turn cars into the cure. This project has made substantial progress and this technology could one day be an important step in our efforts to eliminate drunk driving.”
Currently in the development phase, DADSS will be used as a tool to keep drunk drivers from driving their vehicle if their blood alcohol content is over the legal limit of .08.
Drivers who choose to get behind the wheel while under the influence typically have habitual tendencies to do so. Statistics show that in fatal drunk driving accidents, drivers involved are 8 times more likely to be repeat offenders than a driver with no alcohol in their system at the time of the accident.
According to the NHTSA, there were 10,839 deaths in crashes involving at least one driver with a BAC level of .08 or higher in 2009. This equates to about 32% of total traffic fatalities for the entire year.
There were 7,281 fatalities when the driver tested positive for BAC of .08 or higher which equates to about 67%.
In 2009, New York reported a total of 1,156 fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. There were 388 (34%) fatalities when BAC was .01 or higher for at least one driver. Most of the alcohol-impaired fatal crashes occurred when the BAC of New York drivers was between .08 and .14. There were a total of 1,514 drivers involved in New York fatal crashes in 2009. There were 370 drivers involved in fatal crashes in New York with a BAC of .01 or higher.
The government is optimistic that DADSS will be good for the fight against drunk driving.
“The technology we are seeing here today could quite simply signal a new frontier in the fight against drunk driving,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland.
Though we are a few years away from this new technology being voluntarily installed in new vehicles, drivers in New York can increase their chances of avoiding a drunk driving accident by choosing not to get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol.
Contact the Law Offices of Nicholas Rose if you have suffered serious injury in a New York car accident. For a free and confidential appointment call toll free at 1-877-313-ROSE (7673).
