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WASHINGTON — Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen is driving a bipartisan push to stop drunks from driving and strengthen a national tracking system of drug-involved car crashes.
The Drunk Driving Prevention and Enforcement Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), is intended to help make a 2021 law requiring anti-drunk driving tech in cars a reality.
“Each day, 34 American families lose a loved one to a drunk driving crash,” Gillen said in a statement to The Post. “Drunk driving remains the leading cause of death on our highways, and far too many Long Island families know the pain of a life cut short.”
An estimated 12,429 people were killed in the US in 2023 from drunk driving, about 34 a day, according to the latest data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Alcohol-involved crashes caused $68.9 billion worth of economic damage in 2019 and 497,000 injuries, per NHTSA. They were also responsible for about a third of all fatal vehicular accidents.
Back in 2021, Congress passed the HALT Drunk Driving Act in a larger bipartisan infrastructure package, requiring NHTSA to force new passenger vehicles be equipped with passive anti-drunk driving technology.
However, almost five years later, that policy hasn’t been implemented, which is why Gillen’s (D-NY) new bill takes another approach by establishing a cash prize of at least $45 million to develop a consumer-ready version of the safety feature.
The Transportation Department would oversee the rules and determine the winner.
“I think it’s past due for this bill,” Erica Linn, an ambassador at Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), told The Post.
“We lose too many people,” she added. “Every 42 seconds in this country, somebody is involved in a crash and fatality. This must stop. We have the technology to make the stop, and it has nothing to do with affordability or privacy issues.”
Linn lost both her parents during her birthday in 2016 to a drunk driver who blasted down a residential road in the afternoon at around 80 mph.
She expressed frustrations over the slow pace of implementing the mandate for passive anti-drunk driving technology in vehicles. She would eventually like Congress to go further and require the technology retroactively in older vehicles.
“What I wouldn’t give to have my parents with me now,” Linn bemoaned. “This is 100% preventable, and we have to use all the tools in our toolbox to make sure that the next time anybody goes out on the road, they are safe and not in harm’s way.”
When asked for comment about why the mandate hasn’t taken effect, a NHTSA spokesperson told The Post that the agency is “committed to reducing impaired driving fatalities using every tool at our disposal.”
“NHTSA expects to deliver its annual report to Congress soon with additional details about our efforts to reduce drunk driving-related fatalities and the state of the technology under development,” the spokesperson added.
There are various forms of anti-drunk driving technology on the market, including breathalyzer-style devices, infrared cameras that track eye movements, and passive technology that monitors for alcohol odor.
Gillen’s bill is aimed at producing a more consumer-ready form of that technology and motivating automakers to begin implementing it.
“By incentivizing the auto industry to install life-saving anti-drunk driving technology and strengthening traffic safety enforcement, this legislation directly confronts a public safety threat that has taken far too many lives,” Lawler said of the proposal.
Additionally, the bill instructs the Department of Transportation to establish a Traffic Safety Enforcement Center of Excellence within its NHTSA to give guidance to states on best practices to crack down on hazardous driving.
The Drunk Driving Prevention and Enforcement Act also establishes a database of drug-involved car accidents across the country and provides $30 million annually between fiscal years 2026 and 2031 to help manage that data collection system.
Those funds will also be used to help states improve their data collection protocols and set up labs.
Lawmakers are hoping to pass the Drunk Driving Prevention and Enforcement Act through Congress either through the normal committee process or by tacking it onto the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization legislation, a quinquennial undertaking due at the end of September.
“Passing the law isn’t enough and these measures must be enforced,” Dingell stressed. “NHTSA must act on its congressional directive without delay. Together, we can work to make our roads safer and prevent further unnecessary tragedies.”
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