Archive for June 9th, 2010

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Today, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) secured passage of the ROADS SAFE Amendment as part of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The amendment was approved by voice vote in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The amendment provides $12 million per year over five years to help boost the research for the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, or DADSS. DADSS is the result of a cooperative research agreement between the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS), comprised of the world’s leading auto manufacturers, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

“This is not an ignition interlock device that you would find on a convicted drunk driver’s vehicle today,” said MADD President Laura Dean-Mooney. “The goal is to create a non-intrusive, reliable, and cost effective technology to unobtrusively detect a driver’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and, if the device reads over the illegal limit of .08 BAC or higher, the car could not be driven.”  This legislation is the Senate companion bill to Representative Vern Ehlers (R-MI) and Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD) legislation H.R. 4890. On May 26, ROADS SAFE was included as part of the House version of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

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