In 2021, as part of the Biden administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure package, automakers were mandated to install new technology in vehicles to prevent motorists from driving intoxicated. And in December 2022 the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began officially recommending that all new vehicles for personal use be equipped with alcohol detection devices – which makes sense since the infrastructure bill from November 2021 “includes a requirement for all vehicles to be equipped with passive alcohol interlocks, making them inoperable if a high blood alcohol level is detected. The law dictates that regulations be developed within three years and gives automakers two years to comply….” (Fox)
This technology is passive, measuring breath in the air and/or touch, not a breathalyzer that requires the driver to blow into it as required by many states for those convicted of OWIs/DUIs. And there’s a cost to it, but we don’t know what that cost is yet.
For example, I don’t want a sunroof in my car because I fear that it’s one more thing that can go wrong. Because I don’t drink, after my tax dollars go to pay for developing this passive alcohol detection technology, I then get to pay for a car that has a device I don’t need that could break – much like paying for a sunroof I didn’t want in the first place. And this is all under the guise of safer roads.
But let me tell you a dirty little secret: according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, over 50% of impaired drivers have at least two drugs in their systems. (GHSA) However, in a country that refuses to consider alcohol as the drug it is, I really can’t say with any conviction that those 50% of impaired drivers have alcohol and another drug in their systems. Still, you get the picture.
A passive alcohol test tests for…you guessed it…alcohol. And remember what NHTSA said: it will test for “high blood alcohol level.” What does that even mean? And what does that mean when I have other drugs on board? We all know how alcohol impairs, but do we know how alcohol impairs when we’re also under the influence of cannabis? (It makes the effects worse!) What about alcohol and cocaine? Cocaine and cannabis? And the list goes on. While that passive alcohol restraint will, in theory, keep those who have a “high blood alcohol level” off the roads, what about those who have a lower blood alcohol level but opioids in their systems, too?
News flash: there are going to be lots of problems with the impact of passive alcohol restraints in vehicles that are built starting in 2026!
There is already good technology available: direct biomarker testing of those who have active substance use disorders. Testing works, and it works across the board – for pilots, nurses, drivers, pregnant people, newborns. And it doesn’t charge those who don’t have substance use disorders for recognizing those SUDs in others. When I go to the doctor, I don’t expect to be charged extra because someone with diabetes received a test. I also expect my doctor to recognize my needs…not give me a test for diabetes because the last patient needed one.
Testing does work, but we need to test the right people. Testing everyone goes to show that our society refuses to address substance use disorders as the health problem they are.
References
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/ntsb-vehicles-alcohol-detectors-law
https://www.ghsa.org/resources/DUID18
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