Interlock Facts

High-tech efforts against drunken driving are intensifying around the USA as more states adopt or consider laws requiring first-time offenders to equip their vehicles with devices that prevent operation by intoxicated people.

Federal highway officials and safe driving advocates, noting that crash deaths involving drunken drivers have remained about 32% of all fatalities for the past decade, say the devices are the best way to cut the toll. State legislators are listening.

Last month, Washington became the fifth state — joining Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana and New Mexico — to require alcohol-ignition interlocks for anyone convicted of drunken driving. Last week, the Nebraska Legislature approved such a bill 43-0. California, Colorado and Hawaii are considering interlocks for first offenders. In all, 46 states allow interlocks in some cases.

"Clearly, we need some new approaches, and law enforcement in the field can use some help," says Nicole Nason, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which supports ignition interlocks for repeat offenders.

Alcohol-ignition interlocks are wired into a vehicle's engine. The driver blows into the device before starting the vehicle; if it detects a certain blood-alcohol content, or BAC, the engine won't start. Once the car starts, the driver must blow into the device at random intervals to keep the vehicle running.

The emphasis on technology is sparking debate over whether interlocks should be required for first-time drunken drivers and those with blood-alcohol content of .08% to .14% — or only for repeat offenders and drivers with blood-alcohol content of .15% and up. All 50 states use .08% as the threshold for driving under the influence.

In 2006, 13,470 of the nation's 42,532 traffic deaths came in crashes involving a drunken driver, NHTSA says; more than 55% of the drunken drivers involved in fatal wrecks had a BAC of .15% or higher.

Legislatures in Colorado, Maine, Virginia and West Virginia this year passed bills requiring ignition interlocks for repeat drunken drivers and those with high BACs.

Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute, a restaurant and hospitality industry trade association, says first-time drunken drivers and those with low BACs should not face the same penalties as repeat offenders and high-BAC drivers.

"A 120-pound woman can reach .08 after two 6-ounce glasses of wine over a two-hour period," she says. "If she drives, she's committed a crime and should be punished. But we don't think she should receive the same penalty as a repeat offender."

Nebraska state Sen. Tony Fulton, who introduced his state's strict bill after reading about a father killed by a repeat drunken driver, has one goal: "Avoid repeat offenders."