US infrastructure law has a mandate for tech to stop drunken drivers

Among the technologies the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, or DADSS program, is researching is a passive system that would instantly detect if a driver has been drinking by analysing ambient air. The group is also studying a touch-based system that would measure blood alcohol levels under the skin’s surface by shining an infrared light through the fingertip of the driver. — Photo by Samuele Errico Piccarini on Unsplash

WASHINGTON: In the months after her sister and brother-in-law and their three children died in a January 2019 crash caused by a drunken driver, Rana Abbas Taylor, consumed by grief, travelled to Washington, DC, to talk to lawmakers about her loss.

In the midst of that visit, Stephanie Manning, the chief government affairs officer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, turned to Abbas Taylor. Her sister and her sister’s family, Manning vowed, would be the “reason we’re going to save thousands of lives in this country.”