With up to six million car accidents and other such motor vehicle accidents taking place over the span of just one single year, it is clear to see that motor vehicle collisions and other types of accidents are quite far from uncommon. One might guess that there are many causes to these accidents, and that person would certainly be right.
One of the biggest causes of car and other such motor vehicle accidents in the United States is that, of course, of drunk driving. Drunk driving is far more prevalent than it should be, something that the data gathered on the subject more than backs up. After all, this data clearly shows that there are up to 300,000 people getting behind the wheel of a car while under the influence of alcohol on a daily basis. Unfortunately, only around 4,000 of these people will actually be caught and apprehended, leaving the rest to continue to pose a threat on the road.
And toll that drunk driving takes is certainly a high one. In fact, a new person is injured in a drunk driving related event for every two minutes that pass – and that’s just here in the United States, let alone in any other country throughout the world (in many, drunk driving and driving under the influence is also a problem). Far too many people lose their lives to drunk driving as well, with an average of 28 dying in a single day all throughout the country – and all in incidents that can be linked back in some way to drunk driving.
The financial toll that drunk driving takes is also an immense one and though certainly less important than the cost of human life, should not be glossed over by any means. In just one year throughout the United States, the cumulative cost of drunk driving will likely total at least $59 billion. Drunk driving can all too easily result in extreme damages to buildings, to cars, to people, and to infrastructure, and all of the above certainly comes with a monetary cost.
Fortunately, there are steps that can be taken to prevent such tragedies from ever occurring in the first place. For instance, the installation of the interlock cup and car breathalyzer can prevent those who have already gotten one DUI from getting another. And the average interlock device is becoming more common than ever, with the typical interlock cup for sale being installed more frequently than ever before.
After all, the data surrounding the use of devices like the interlock cup and ignition interlock device as a whole are certainly promising, there is no denying this fact. This data shows that the use of devices such as the use of the interlock cup and other elements of the interlock device can reduce drunk driving related arrests by as much as 70%, which is nearly a full three quarters. For most parts of this country, this is a truly impressive change, to say the very least.
In addition to this, using devices such as the interlock cup can even be impactful on the driving of the user even after the sentence has ended and the interlock cup in question is removed. In fact, the prominence and prevalence of repeat offenses of drunk driving or driving while intoxicated are more than 35% lower in those that had an interlock cup or some other similar device installed for some period of time versus offenders who did not have an interlock cup or similar device installed.
At the end of the day, drunk driving is a truly terrifying thing, there is no doubt about it. Unfortunately, drunk driving has already cost far too many people their lives and will likely continue to cost people their lives and futures in the years ahead of us as well. Fortunately, devices such as the interlock cup can save lives, as interlock installation has been shown to reduce the number of repeat offenders and offenses quite considerably. Just the installation of an interlock device can have a truly massive impact on drunk driving rates, and so these devices are being considered more and more frequently for use in many DUI cases.
