{"id":43797,"date":"2021-11-10T11:03:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T18:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/anti-drunk-driving-tech-to-be-installed-in-all-new-vehicles\/"},"modified":"2021-11-10T18:03:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T18:03:00","slug":"anti-drunk-driving-tech-to-be-installed-in-all-new-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/anti-drunk-driving-tech-to-be-installed-in-all-new-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-drunk driving tech to be installed in all new vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado and New Mexico rank high for drunken driving incidents, according BackgroundChecks.org, a nonprofit that compiles such data. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The infrastructure bill, passed on Friday by the U.S. House includes a provision that mandates new passenger vehicles be equipped with tech to stop drinking and driving.<\/p>\n

The end goal, supporters say, is to achieve what decades of varied \u2013 and often harsh \u2013 drunk-driving laws have failed to do: eliminate driving while intoxicated completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put this technology in a vehicle is going to be cost-effective and long-overdue,\u201d said defense attorney and state Rep. Antonio \u201cMoe\u201d Maestas. \u201cIt\u2019s going to save hundreds and hundreds of lives annually, and at some point in the future, it will practically eliminate DWI fatalities across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prevention not punishment<\/div>\n

Andrew Martinez, better known to the public as hip-hop artist Wake Self, sustained fatal injuries when a drunk driver crashed into his car going 60 mph on the wrong side of West Alameda in Santa Fe in November 2019.<\/p>\n

His brother Eric said Wake Self was known for his community-focused work and beloved by thousands.<\/p>\n

The brothers grew up in New Mexico, and Eric Martinez said a number of their friends and acquaintances have DWI convictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to see anybody lose a family member to drunk driving, or you don\u2019t want to see anybody get seriously hurt,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the flip side of that, you don\u2019t want to see somebody who you\u2019re close with, a friend, as being a drunk driver. It\u2019s a bad situation all the way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he supports the technology requirement as an approach to DWI.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people talk about reactive measures \u2013 making punishments harsher, or making the jail sentences harsher,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s all after the fact that one of these tragedies occurs. In my opinion, this new legislation would be a proactive measure \u2013 or a preventative measure \u2013 where it eliminates the possibility of someone actually driving drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arrest data from the FBI indicates the typical drunk driver has more than 80 episodes of impaired driving before their first arrest.<\/p>\n

Rep. Maestas said the future vehicle safety tech will not only prevent those 80 times that the driver isn\u2019t caught, but also keep people out of the criminal legal system altogether.<\/p>\n

How it would work<\/div>\n

Some critics are concerned that the technology \u2013 especially the blood-alcohol detectors \u2013 may not be accurate, as has been the case with breath tests, according to a 2019 investigation by the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration will be charged with selecting the technology required in new vehicles. The new standard will incorporate one or a combination of three types of technology: driving-performance monitoring, driver monitoring or alcohol detection.<\/p>\n

MADD released a report in May that listed 241 different types of technology. Alex Otte, national president of the organization, said what\u2019s being rolled out is different than an ignition interlock.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bAn interlock is a punitive measure for someone that has done the bad thing,\u201d she said. \u201cRather, this technology \u2013 all of the different types of technology that are being considered \u2013 are entirely passive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the drunk or otherwise impaired driver will get in the car, and it either won\u2019t start or will pull itself over once it detects impairment,\u201d Otte said. \u201cThe sober driver will never even know it\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maestas predicted it will take about 20 years for more cars on the roads to have the technology than not.<\/p>\n

The conversation around the U.S.<\/div>\n

The final rules from the Traffic Safety Administration will be required within three years. After that, car manufacturers will have one to two years to implement the driving safety standards.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s U.S. Senate delegation has advocated for some form of mandated anti-DWI technology for at least three years.<\/p>\n

Former New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall introduced the Reduce Impaired Driving for Everyone (RIDE) Act in 2019. Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n and Florida\u2019s Sen. Rick Scott introduced the same legislation in April and then worked with legislative colleagues to have it included in the infrastructure package.<\/p>\n

Reps. Debra Dingell, D-MI, Kathleen Rice, D-NY, and David McKinley, R-WV, \u200b\u200balso introduced similar legislation in the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bipartisan infrastructure legislation marks the most significant investment in our nation\u2019s infrastructure in generations,\u201d Luj\u00e1n said. \u201cI was proud to vote to pass this legislation in August and secure key priorities for New Mexico \u2013 including putting an end to drunk and impaired driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Source NM, visit www.sourcenm.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

improvements could \u2018practically eliminate\u2019 DUIs in 20 years, lawmaker says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[480,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dui","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43797"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}