Are tougher DUI laws and SR22 Insurance requirements helping to reduce drunk driving and helping to save life’s?
DUI driving laws make it illegal nationwide to drive with a BAC at or above 0.08%. For people under 21, “zero tolerance” laws make it illegal to drive with any alcohol in their system. These laws, along with laws that maintain the minimum legal drinking age at 21 have had a clear effect on highway safety, saving tens of thousands of lives since their implementation.
Sobriety Stop Checks
Use of sobriety checkpoints that allow police to briefly stop vehicles at specific, highly visible locations to see if the driver is impaired have reduced driving under the influence.
Ignition Interlocks
Requirement of Ignition interlocks installed in cars to measure alcohol on the driver’s breath. Interlocks keep the car from starting if the driver has a BAC above a certain level, usually 0.02%. They have been highly effective at preventing repeat offenses while installed. Mandating interlocks for all offenders has had a big impact on drunk driving.
License Suspension
Mandatory license revocation or suspension laws that allow police to take away the license of a driver who tests at or above the legal BAC limit or who refuses testing have been very effective.
DUI Schools
Use of mandatory school based education after a DUI has also helped to reduce repeat offenders.
Requiring SR22 Insurance
Mandate’s to have SR22 Insurance to keep a valid license along with the DMV tracking requirement has also brought down drunk driving.
All though the above actions have helped to reduce drunk driving 30 people die every day in the United States in DUI crashes. That’s one person every 48 minutes in 2017. These deaths have fallen by a third in the last three decades. However, drunk-driving crashes claim more than 10,000 lives per year. In 2010, the most recent year for which cost data is available, these deaths and damages contributed to a cost of $44 billion that year.
You can find more information at https://www.nhtsa.gov/ and at https://www.cdc.gov/
