DUI fatalities fall 1.1% in U.S., and drop 7.3% in Fla.
But safe-driving advocates say state needs to mandate ignition interlocks.
Drunken-driving deaths were down in Florida last year, but the decrease, while welcome, is not viewed with excitement by those who track the issue.
Fatalities resulting from drunken drivers decreased by 1.1 percent across the U.S. in 2017 compared to 2016, data released last week from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows.
Florida bettered the national average significantly with a drop of 7.3 percent in 2017. That translates into 66 fewer deaths on state roads compared to 2016.
“Certainly any decrease is what we want to see,” said David Pinsker, state executive director for Moth-
ers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD. “Is it a big enough decrease? Of course not.”
In 2017, 839 people in Florida died in DUI crashes. That number was 905 in 2016.
Intoxicated drivers remain the biggest cause of traffic fatalities both in Florida and the U.S.
Nearly 11,000 people — about one-third of the nation’s 37,000-plus traffic fatalities — died in 2016 and 2017 due to drivers impaired by alcohol. By comparison, deaths caused by distracted drivers in 2016 totaled 3,450.
Pinsker said the drop in the state’s DUI death tally may be attributable to the growing use of ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft.
But the state chapter of MADD, based in Weston, is pushing to reduce the numbers further.
The organization is lobbying legislators in Tallahassee to pass a law requiring that first-time DUI offenders install an ignition-interlock device on their vehicle if a judge permits that person to drive with a restricted license.
A restricted license allows a person convicted of DUI to drive to work or anywhere else approved by court order.
As it stands today, a firsttime offender in Florida is required to install the ignition device only if ordered by a judge, if a minor was in the vehicle or if the person registered a blood-alcohol level of .15 or above. The legal threshold for intoxication in Florida is 0.08.
Pinsker said his organization would prefer that Florida join more than 30 other states that mandate first-time offenders equip their vehicles with an ignition interlock.
An ignition interlock, also
Nearly 11,000 people in the U.S. died at the hands of DUI drivers in 2016 and 2017. Last year, 839 died in Florida.
referred to as a car Breathalyzer, won’t allow a driver to start a vehicle if a breath sample registers above a pre-set limit.
No one questions that interlocks save lives. Between December 2006 and December 2017, interlocks stopped 78,162 attempts to drive while drunk in Florida, according to state records.
The devices cost between $75 and $150 to install and require a monthly maintenance fee of about $90.
Without any way to monitor a DUI offender’s driving activity, Pinsker said an ignition interlock “provides that fail-safe.”
“If they get in the car, we want to make sure there’s a protection device between them and the safety of others,” Pinsker said.
State records show that 63 people died in Palm Beach County between 2014 and 2016 in DUI-related crashes. There were 16 deaths in St. Lucie County and 15 in Martin County during that same period.