Advocates has sent a letter of support for advancing Assembly Bill (AB) 366 to leadership in the California Assembly Committee on Appropriations. AB 366 would make permanent the ignition interlock device (IID) pilot program and upgrade the law to require the use of IIDs by all convicted drunk drivers, including first time offenders.
In 2023, 1,355 people were needlessly killed in drunk driving crashes on California roads according to the most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This is a 40 percent increase in drunk driving fatalities compared to 2019 and accounted for 33 percent of all traffic fatalities that year.
Under current law, a court may require an IID for a first-time offender. Information from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) on the effectiveness of IIDs notes that IIDs prevented over 28,000 attempts to drive drunk in California in 2020 alone. Expanding the law to include all first time offenders would improve the effectiveness of the IID program and help prevent drunk driving.
Read the full letter here.
Advocates previously weighed in with the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee earlier this year. Click here to view.