NTSB recommends drunk driving prevention technology in all new vehicles
Sep 20, 2022, 5:11 PM
Traffic on Interstate 80 in Crockett, California, on June 9. The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending all new vehicles include drunk driving prevention technology. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN)
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN)
(CNN) — The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday put its weight behind requiring new vehicles to include drunk driving prevention technology.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said that technology — as well as speed-related technology — “can prevent the tens of thousands of fatalities from impaired-driving and speeding-related crashes we see in the U.S. annually.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that passed last year with bipartisan support gave the Transportation Department three years to craft a requirement that new vehicles feature “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its progress.
NHTSA says 32 people die of alcohol-related collisions every day — more than 11,000 every year. It reported fatalities climbed 5% in 2021.
The NTSB recommendation came as part of its investigation of a 2021 head-on collision in California that killed nine people, mostly children.
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