U.S. DOT report examines effective use of IIDs to curb drunken driving | DENENA | POINTS
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U.S. DOT report examines effective use of IIDs to curb drunken driving

The Houston crash injury lawyers at Denena & Points note that a 2010 report released by the U.S. NHTSA, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation took an in-depth look at the use of IIDs (Ignition Interlock Devices) as a means to curb drinking and driving. The report is called Assessing the Feasibility of Vehicle-Based Sensors to Detect Alcohol Impairment.

Guardian_Interlock_AMS2000_DeviceThe consistent number of serious and fatal drunken driving crashes in the United States prompted the NHTSA study each year. The incidence of drunken driving and resulting accidents has remained the same despite increasing efforts to educate the public about the dangers of driving while impaired and to increase punishments for drunken driving, intervention efforts, and the use of no refusal type programs and IIDs.

Our Houston crash injury lawyers emphasize that drunken driving crashes continue to account for at least 31% of traffic fatalities each year. And the number of drivers with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels greater than the legal limit of 0.08% also remains at 31% or above.

The NHTSA study examined the driving behavior of three age groups of drivers under three different types of driving conditions and at three levels of BAC. The study concluded that IIDs could determine a driver’s level of impairment with an accuracy of between 73% and 86%, similar to the accuracy level of field sobriety tests.

The study also concluded that inherent variability between individual drivers and road situations strongly influenced the accurate performance of the algorithms governing the IIDs’ operations. So the researchers suggested that the algorithms be tailored to these individual drivers and driving situations, though they did not suggest how this might be feasibly done.

The study concluded that with an accuracy rate of 73% to 86%, IIDs do provide a feasible means for curbing a substantial amount, if not all, of drunken driving behavior. The IID data revealing alcohol impairment could be reasonably used to intervene and discourage drivers from operating their vehicles while impaired, thus preventing some alcohol-related fatal crashes.

The NHTSA study concluded that because about 66% of alcohol-related fatal crashes occur when drivers have BAC levels of 0.15% or above, the greatest value of the IIDs might lie in detecting high BAC levels. In addition, our Houston crash injury lawyers report that the IIDs showed some promise in detecting other driving impairments such as drowsiness behind the wheel and age-related cognitive decline.

Learn more about the performance of IIDs installed in convicted drunken drivers’ vehicles.Click here to read this in-depth discussion by our Houston crash injury lawyers of the devices performance.