Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is celebrating a new report that shows strong public support for equipping all new cars with impaired driving prevention technology.
“Public Support for Vehicle Technology to Prevent Operation by Impaired Drivers,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, is based on a nationwide survey of adults who were asked if they support six different types of vehicle technologies – vehicle impairment prevention, fatigue warning, seat belt interlock, speed warning, cell phone blocking and speed limiters.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents, or 64.9 per cent, either agreed or strongly agreed that vehicle impairment prevention technology should be available on all new vehicles. Nearly the same percentage of respondents (63.4 per cent) in the report by researchers with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said they support the mandate for the technology that is included in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“The report reinforces MADD’s strong belief that most people want to see this safety feature on new cars to prevent the senseless deaths and injuries caused by impaired driving,” said MADD CEO Stacey D. Stewart.
“With historic increases in traffic deaths over the past three years, implementation of impaired driving prevention technology is urgently needed.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law requires the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to complete a rulemaking for impaired driving prevention technology by 2024. The systems would passively detect impairment and would not be noticeable to unimpaired drivers. Automakers would then have up to three years to implement the new safety standard.
