The Nationwide Transportation Security Board is calling on its sister company to implement regulation requiring all automobiles bought within the US to incorporate blood alcohol monitoring programs. The NTSB despatched the advice to the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration on Tuesday after finishing an investigation right into a horrific collision final yr that concerned drunk driving and the dying of two adults and 7 youngsters.
“Expertise may’ve prevented this heartbreaking crash — simply as it will probably forestall the tens of 1000’s of fatalities from impaired-driving and speeding-related crashes we see within the US yearly,” stated NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “We have to implement the applied sciences we now have proper right here, proper now to save lots of lives.”
In line with statistics revealed by the NHTSA, practically 43,000 folks died on US roads final yr, marking the best that quantity had been in 16 years. Whereas site visitors deaths fell barely between April and June, Ann Carlson, the company’s appearing administrator, stated a “disaster” was nonetheless underway on the nation’s roads. “We want NHTSA to behave. We see the numbers,” Homendy advised The Related Press. “We have to make it possible for we’re doing all we are able to to save lots of lives.”
The NTSB says all new vehicles bought within the US ought to embody an built-in system that passively detects if the motive force is drunk. It notes that such a system might be mixed with superior driver monitoring applied sciences to forestall accidents. Individually, the company recommends that the NHTSA incentivize automakers to incorporate tech that stops speeding-related collisions. The NTSB doesn’t have the authority to control or implement any security measures it suggests. It has been calling on the NHTSA to discover alcohol monitoring applied sciences since 2012.
The NHTSA additionally faces strain from Congress to mandate such programs. Beneath final yr’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation, the company has three years to check the feasibility of assorted alcohol monitoring applied sciences and set up a last algorithm. It will possibly search an extension, nonetheless. And up to now, it has been sluggish to implement such necessities.
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