'A fine idea': Alcohol detection systems now mandatory for all vehicles in US

Drunk driving has always been a major concern in the US as it kills more than 10,000 people every year. However, a new law that has been introduced aims at tackling this problem. The law makes it mandatory for every car to have an alcohol detection system.

The new law was introduced on Tuesday when President Joe Biden signed the infrastructure bill that requires new cars have the systems installed as standard equipment.

It was after Sarah Carmichael, who happens to be a victim, became an advocate for all other victims and along with anti-drunk-driving advocacy group, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) urged the federal legislation to make alcohol detection systems mandatory in all vehicles.

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She explains how a crash in February 2008 changed her life forever. She was stopped at a light in Framingham when she was hit by a drunk driver.

Speaking to CBS Boston, she said, "I was in a medically induced coma for about 10 days."

"C1 and C2 vertebrae in my neck were fractured as well as the base of my skull, both sides of my collarbone, 11 of my ribs, my pelvis was shattered,” she told WBZ-TV’s I-Team. “Doctors prepared my family that I was not going to live.”

It took her years to recover.

Alex Otte, national president of MADD said, "I'm crying tears of joy today."

"This is the beginning of the end of drunk driving," she wrote in a statement after Biden's law signing ceremony Monday at the White House.

The DADDS initiative is a partnership between ACTS and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Laura Perrotta, president of the advocacy group American Highway Users Alliance, deemed it as a fine idea.

"Someone uses mouthwash and goes to turn on their car and can't get it to start, but then someone else has one too many drinks and it doesn't detect it," she said. "That could be a real problem."