Alcohol Detection Technology Key to Tackling Impaired Driving, Meeting Goals of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)’s Most Wanted List of Transportation of Safety Improvements
Dulles, VA, April 6, 2021 – Today, the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) issued the following statement on the 2021-2022 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)’s Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements:
“We appreciate the NTSB’s continued focus on preventing alcohol impaired driving deaths and its ongoing belief in the promise of in-vehicle alcohol detection technologies like those being tested under the DADSS Program,” said Robert Strassburger, President & CEO of ACTS.
“Despite efforts by the traffic safety community and law enforcement, drunk driving remains the number one cause of fatalities on our roads. Technology holds the key to eliminating this threat, and DADSS technologies have been consistently recognized as the most promising and quickest pathway to prevent drunk driving fatalities on a large scale. They also remain the best choice for wide deployment at a cost, size and manner that will be accepted by consumers.”
The NTSB’s Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements is a communication tool through which the agency identifies its top safety improvements that when made will prevent accidents, reduce the number and severity of injuries, and save lives.
“Prevent Alcohol- and Other Drug-Impaired Driving” was adopted as one of NTSB’s 2021-2022 Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements. The DADSS Program has been included in the NTSB’s list of safety recommendations associated with the Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements for several years.
Data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) estimates that 9,400 deaths could be prevented each year if technology existed to prevent drivers from driving above a BAC level of 0.08, the legal limit in most states. The technology under the DADSS Program is the only technology being developed to measure or quantify precise blood alcohol concentrations – the “gold standard” for alcohol impairment – render a vehicle inoperable and prevent a legally intoxicated driver from driving drunk.
After years of successful research, the DADSS Program is preparing to commercialize the current breath system for use by fleet operators implementing a zero-tolerance alcohol policy for their drivers later this year. To date, the Program has driven over 65,000 test miles and analyzed nearly 150,000 breath, blood and touch samples through human subject and driving testing to ensure the technologies are accurate, precise and reliable before being introduced to consumers. Full commercialization in vehicles is expected in the next four years.
For more information about the DADSS Program, visit http://www.dadss.org