Drunk Drivers are on the Rise

One-third of fatal crashes are caused by alcohol and fatalities topped 10,000 in 2012 due to drunk drivers. More and more people today are driving while impaired. A conviction of driving under the influence can cause you to lose your driver's license and make car insurance more than double. One day in the near future you may not need to take your friends’ keys to keep them from driving, there are cars that will tell them if they are capable of driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently extended its agreement with automobile manufacturers to develop the Driver Alcohol Detection System. Two different types of technology are being worked on by researchers; they both would detect your blood-alcohol content through either touch or breathing.

The technology would detect if your blood-alcohol level is above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. The system would be different from alcohol detecting interlock systems; systems like this are placed in people's vehicles who are convicted of driving under the influence. With those types of systems you have to blow into a tube and if you are under the limit the vehicle will start. Researchers say that “the new system must be accurate, unobtrusive, and completely reliable.” They also say that “the aim is to stop a drunk driver from getting on the road in the first place, rather than arresting them after the fact, or worse yet, after a crash.” At the end of 2013, the program was extended for another five years. Mothers Against Drunk Drivers is one of the organizations helping to make the Driver Alcohol Detection System. Researchers estimate they will have a vehicle equipped with both a touch-based technology and breath-based by 2015. Hopefully, this system will prevent the fatal crashes that kill people every year.

Gulf Coast Educators Insurance serves Southwest Florida. Give one of our licensed agents a call today!