Making Progress on Impaired Driving

Steve Schmidt began the session by giving an historical look at the progress of highway fatalities associated with alcohol-impaired driving. Since 1995, progress has stalled.  He also provided a general overview of laws that have impacted drinking and driving such as passing the Minimum Legal Drinking Age, adding sobriety checks, and adopting the .08 BAC as the legal limit for intoxication. He discussed the science and research behind impaired driving. The CDC, Community Preventive Services Task Force, NHTSA, The National Transportation Safety Board and the National Academy of Sciences all have provided recommendations of strategies to reduce alcohol-impacted driving.  The Map-21 Funding is a bill that was passed by Congress in 2012.  It gives states the authority to govern US Federal Surface Transportation spending to help states deal with impaired fatalities.

Kim Morris, MADD provided a general overview of their Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving.  She stated that 34,461 people were killed in car crashes on US roadways during 2016 which was a 5.6% increase since 2015.  There are four components to their campaign:  Support for Law Enforcement and High Visibility Law Enforcement Efforts; Ignitions Interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers; Support for Advanced Vehicle Technology and Public Support.  MADD has a 2016 Ignition Interlock Report that was released in March 2017.  It includes completed data from 11 ignition interlock companies and recommendations to strengthen interlock laws.  Ms. Morris also discussed DADSS, Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety and the different technological approaches to eliminate impaired driving.