Reply #3: Not just Ohio: [View All]

Proposed federal funding for alcohol-detection devices could make them available as a new car option within 10 years, but some hope — and others fret — it will speed installation in every car.

"What we'd like to see is it used as much as possible," says Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Although she doesn't think the devices, which stop drunken drivers from starting their cars, will ever be mandatory, she says the devices could solve the problem.

"We've worked on behavior modification for the last 30 years, but we're still killing almost 11,000 Americans a year," she says.

Legislation sponsored by Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would redirect $60 million in highway safety money over five years to a government-industry research project developing a prototype alcohol-detection device for cars. These aren't the clunky ignition interlocks or "breathalyzers" now used on convicted drunken drivers' vehicles that require drivers to blow into them, often repeatedly.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-03-27-alcohol-detection-in-new-cars.htm