Unobtrusive device tests if driver is drunk

WALTHAM, Mass. - An alcohol-detection prototype that uses automatic sensors to instantly gauge a driver's fitness to be on the road has the potential to save thousands of lives, but could be as long as a decade away from everyday use in cars, federal officials and researchers said Friday.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited QinetiQ North America, a Waltham, Mass.-based research and development facility, for the first public demonstration of systems that could measure whether a motorist's blood alcohol content exceeds the current legal limit in all states of 0.08. If so, it would prevent the vehicle from starting.

The technology is being designed to be unobtrusive, unlike alcohol ignition interlock systems now often mandated by judges for convicted drunken drivers. Those require a person to blow into a breath-testing device before the car can operate.

The Driver Alcohol Detection Systems for Safety, as the new approach is called, would use sensors that would measure blood alcohol content either by analyzing a driver's breath or through the skin, using sensors placed on steering wheels and door locks, for example.

They eliminate the need for drivers to take any extra steps, avoiding delays for those who are sober.

LaHood emphasized the system was envisioned as optional equipment in future cars and voluntary for auto manufacturers.

David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, also attended the demonstration and estimated the technology could prevent as many as 9,000 fatal alcohol-related crashes a year in the United States. But he acknowledged that it was still in its early testing stages and might not be commercially available for eight to 10 years.

The systems would not be used unless they are "seamless, unobtrusive and unfailingly accurate," Strickland said.

The initial $10 million research program is funded jointly by NHTSA and the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, an industry group representing many of the world's carmakers.

Critics, such as Sarah Longwell of the American Beverage Institute, a restaurant trade association, doubt if the technology could ever be perfected to the point that it would be fully reliable and not stop some completely sober people from driving.

"Even if the technology is 99.9 percent reliable, that's still tens of thousands of cars that won't start every day," Longwell said.