Virginia DMV, Schneider partner on alcohol-detection system trial

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and a national trucking company are partnering to test a new driver alcohol detection system.

The DMV and Schneider are collaborating with the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety to make Schneider the first truckload carrier to conduct a trial deployment of the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety Program.

Since 2018, the Driven to Protect Initiative, a public-private partnership between the Virginia DMV and the DADSS Program, has been helping to test in-vehicle alcohol detection technology that will determine if a driver is impaired with a blood alcohol concentration at or above the applicable legal limit in Virginia — and prevent the vehicle from moving if so.

“Virginians should be proud of our state’s leadership in public safety and technology innovation,” said Virginia DMV Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb, the governor’s highway safety representative. “The progress we have made since 2018 has advanced this game-changing anti-drunk driving technology, and I am excited to see how this new deployment will bring the technology one step closer to saving countless lives on our roadways.”

Schneider is the first truckload carrier to work with the DADSS Program. The company implemented speed-limiters in the 1980s and has continued to be an early adopter of other safety technology, such as stability control systems, electronic logging devices, collision mitigation systems and forward- and side-mounted video cameras.

“Safety comes first at Schneider, always, and we believe in going above and beyond industry standards. We look forward to the opportunity to pilot groundbreaking safety technology developed to help save lives,” said Schneider Vice President of Safety, Driver Training and Compliance Tom DiSalvi. “We know our team of professional drivers will embrace this technology because, just as with previous safety enhancements, they will be part of a solution that will make our highways safer.”

As part of the trial deployment, Schneider will outfit eight of its cabs with the latest breath sensors in 2022, logging more than 100,000 sensor miles for each vehicle outfitted, for a collective total of almost one million miles. This pilot program is designed to help refine the technology by increasing the stress that the system is put under on the road, exponentially increasing the number of miles driven and exposing the system to new drivers and a wider range of environmental conditions — all viewed as key components to the DADSS Program’s quest to commercialize fully passive vehicle-integrated breath technology.

The effort builds upon the Virginia DMV’s ongoing partnership with Virginia-based James River Transportation through the Driven to Protect Initiative, which was the first time the breath sensors were tested as part of in-vehicle, on-road test trials involving light passenger vehicles.

The DADSS technology suite, according to state officials, is widely accepted as the most promising and expedient pathway to prevent drunk driving fatalities on a large scale. Last month, Congress demonstrated its commitment to advanced technology solutions by including them in the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which lays out a process for deploying advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.

Officials believe that once it’s commercially available, DADSS technology could drastically reduce the number of drunk driving deaths in Virginia and across the United States. According to a study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, when widely deployed in all vehicles, such an alcohol detection system could help eliminate the No. 1 cause of fatalities on U.S. roadways and save more than 9,000 lives each year.

Last year, Virginia alone reported 6,624 alcohol-related crashes, 272 alcohol-related fatalities and 3,386 alcohol-related injuries on its roadways.

“With Virginia’s support, the DADSS technology has gone from an early prototype to a viable safety feature for all vehicles in the future, much like seat belts and airbags,” said Rob Strassburger, president and CEO of ACTS.

For details about the Driven to Protect Initiative in Virginia, visit DrivenToProtectVA.org.