Upcoming editorial: Time to lock out drunk driving

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All Baltimore mourned the death of a 20-year-old Johns Hopkins University student recently struck and killed on St. Paul Street by a truck witnesses saw being driven erratically earlier in the day that is owned by a man who has been convicted at least four times of driving under the influence. The hit-and-run killing of Miriam Frankl need not be senseless if it spurs lawmakers to make it far more difficult for intoxicated drivers to get behind the wheel.

Over the years, the campaign against drunk driving has taken many forms, from lowering blood alcohol levels to funding sobriety checkpoints. But there's one strategy legislators could pursue that could prove more effective than any of them: Mandating ignition interlock devices.

The technology is proven, as are the results it delivers. Drivers must breathe into an installed interlock and produce a sober result in order to start the car -- and then pass a periodic retest once they are on the road. Failures are logged by the device and provided as evidence to the Motor Vehicle Administration.

New Mexico, the first state to mandate ignition interlock for drunk driving, has seen recidivism drop 65 percent over a four-year period. Drunk-driving fatalities in the state have fallen by more than one-third.

So far, 11 states have taken the mandatory route with the latest, California, signing on for a large-scale pilot program this month. The vast majority of states, including Maryland, allow judges to require ignition interlock devices in sentencing, but too often that authority is not exercised.

Recently, volunteers with Mothers Against Drunk Driving monitored hundreds of DUI and DWI cases in Maryland at random and were discouraged by the results — ignition interlock was ultimately required in just 3 percent. In Baltimore County, the results were worse: Out of 167 watched by MADD, none resulted in a defendant installing an ignition interlock device in his or her vehicle.

According to the MVA, there are currently only about 7,900 drivers in the state's interlock program.

Mandating interlocks for all convictions including first-time offenders would change that. The devices are not particularly expensive -- installation and monitoring costs come out to less than $3 per day -- especially when compared to the cost of a drunk driving accident.

Maryland lawmakers have had a chance to require ignition interlock devices before. Last year, the Senate passed legislation to do just that, but the measure never got out of the House Judiciary Committee.

Judiciary Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr., a Prince George's County trial attorney, is considered the biggest (and perhaps only significant) obstacle to the bill's passage. To overcome his misguided opposition, MADD and other proponents will need all the help they can get, including from Gov. Martin O'Malley.

The modest administrative cost associated with expanding the MVA program -- about $362,000, according to the most recent estimate -- should not be a deterrence, even in a difficult budget year. Saving just one life would more than justify the cost, and the devices have been proven to save far more than that.