Breathalyzers and Road Tests

Driving a car is the most dangerous thing we do day to day. Motor vehicle collisions account for 122 deaths and 14,246 preventable injuries every single day across the entirety of the United States according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. I say collision, because I do not believe that “accident” is appropriate. An “accident” is beyond the control of those involved. However, we know that this is not the case of the vast majority of all collisions. This major loss of life is preventable. The injuries caused are avoidable. Without ongoing and improved accountability for drivers, we will continue to characterize these occurrences as “accidents”.

When you go to get your license renewed, you have to take a vision test. However, you don’t have to recertify your ability to operate a motor vehicle safely. I used to work at the Division of Motor Vehicles in my home town of Anchorage, Alaska as a road examiner. My job included inspecting vehicles for safety, conducting the basic skills test, checking for successful completion of the written exam, administering the eye test, and grading the road skills test itself. As a result, I take the safety of my community very seriously. Most people assume that road exams are only for young men and women to receive driving privileges while they are in high school. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Alaska is a place where DUIs have risen 112% in the last 10 years, compared to the nation as a whole trending downwards by 14.5% per the National Safety Council. This rise in the DUI rate has resulted in a reinstatement process that requires a breathalyzer to be installed in their vehicle, a general knowledge written exam to be taken, and a road test to be administered, among other requirements such as reinstatement fees. Medical re-examinations happen when a citizen or police officer is concerned about a license holder’s ability to safely operate a vehicle. Sadly, these tests are required after an offense has already been committed or unsafe behavior has already occurred. Mind you, this is only a fraction and not representative of the true number of those driving while their abilities are impaired for any reason. What can we do to avoid more unnecessary and avoidable deaths due to vehicle collisions?

I call your attention to the medical re-examination. If someone has an incident that leads to a question of medical fitness to drive, they must take a road skills test to examine their ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. If they are unable to pass, they must refrain from driving until they are able to. As I pointed out before, it is a requirement to take the eye exam every time you renew your drivers license. In the state of Alaska, you can do so online without needing to take the eye examination every other time you renew. Someone can go sixteen years without being required to check their eyesight. When it comes to road skills, unless your driver’s license is expired for five years and one day, you will likely never need to retest. In my experience with conducting the road exam, the skills of an applicant has little to do with whether their eyesight is 20/20 versus 20/40. The success of the test has even less to do with the age or experience of the applicant. Individuals from every age group fail for almost hitting a pedestrian. I know because I have personally been the one to alert the driver of the pedestrian’s presence. No matter the age group, occupation, or amount of experience driving, there is someone who has done something equally dangerous and had to retest. The difference between a safe driver and an unsafe driver has more to do with how seriously they take safety in little things.

Making a full and complete stop at a stop sign, appropriately using a turn signal, or decelerating at a yellow light is more important than someone’s age or eyesight when it comes to the result of the road test. These are also the skills we tend to forget the longer we drive. We should certainly make road skills a higher priority than an eye test. To do so, it should be a requirement to perform a road examination just as often as we check someone’s eyesight. This will go a long way to improve safety and reduce death and injury due to careless driving. In addition to this, I believe another change will impact vehicular deaths and injuries in an even greater way.

I call your attention once again to the breathalyzer. It is a device that prohibits the activation of a car if the driver’s blood alcohol level is too high. It costs thousands of dollars to install and its users must rent them to fulfill the requirements of a judgment as a result of drunk driving. Why wait until an alcohol related event occurs to install a breathalyzer? I say that all motor vehicles should be manufactured with breathalyzers installed as a standard. Would it be annoying to require a breath sample to start your vehicle? Yes, it certainly would. Would it be worth the inconvenience to stop drunk drivers from driving in the first place? To answer this question, I ask you to consider this data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Using their statistics, we can see that 13,384 deaths occurred as a result of drunk driving in 2021. Do you think that those individuals would have passed away if the drunk driver wasn’t even able to start their car? With a measure such as this, we can imagine the result it could have had to prevent unnecessary deaths. In addition to steps such as these, robust drivers education that continues throughout a driver’s lifetime should be a requirement.

From my personal experience due to a motor vehicle collision, I now have an “acquired deformity of the spine” according to my medical records. When I was eighteen years old, I was in a collision when my friend was driving. She had earned her license that week and her mother was in the passenger’s seat. The other vehicle struck the passenger side at 35 miles per hour right where I was sitting. Her mother suffered a concussion and I bumped my head but seemed fine. It wasn’t until years later that x rays proved that my chronic neck and back pain was because of that very bump on the head. My spine will never bend the right way again, but I am grateful that I still have a life to live. The trauma of that event was not only physical, but a mental one as well.

I take vehicular safety very seriously because of my past experience and my former profession as a road examiner. I would encourage any adult to think about their driving skills and whether they take the little things seriously. I was injured because someone failed to stop at a stop sign. Today it is expected that 37 people will pass away because of an alcohol related accident. It is clear that we are not doing enough to address this. Just like I do every so often, please take a look at your state’s driver’s manual and reflect on what kind of driver you have been today and how to show a good example to those around you. Would you pass a road examination if you took one? Remembering even the little things like coming to a full and complete stop at a stop sign could reduce the preventable accident statistics. That is why I believe more required road tests for all drivers and breathalyzers in cars should be seriously considered as the standard of the future.