NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — On May 1, U.S. Representatives Tracey Mann (KS-01) and Chris Pappas (NH-01) introduced the End Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) Act of 2024. The bipartisan legislation would create a national ignition interlock standard by encouraging states to adopt a mandatory first-time ignition interlock law, which helps reduce recidivism and improve road safety by ensuring fewer drunk drivers are on the road. Twenty-five states, including Kansas, already meet the standards outlined in the bill.
Hutchinson lawyer and MADD National Board Member, Matt Bretz, praised Mann for the introduction of this legislation.
"MADD has long pushed for ignition interlock to be mandatory in every state," Bretz said. "In Kansas, it is, even for first time offenders. First time offenders are supposed to, in Kansas, have an interlock for the first six months and up to a year. There are many states that don't require an interlock. This bill would make six months mandatory in every state. States could do more than that, but it would be a minimum requirement."
Even though MADD has been around since 1980, drunk and drugged driving is still a problem across the United States.
"There are 13,500 Americans that are killed every year by drunk or drugged drivers, which is up in the last three years," Bretz said. "We were down, before COVID to about 10,000 Americans killed a year by drunk and drugged drivers."
Bretz said he doesn't have a precise statistic on how much of his law practice is working in cases involving impairment, but it is still significant.
"My best estimate would be that about 10 to 15 percent of the cases that we handle, the people that we represent are victims of drugged or drunk driving," Bretz said. "Sometimes, it's suspected that the responsible party was impaired, but for a variety of reasons, maybe they weren't tested, we don't know definitively."
Bretz notes that drunk or drugged driving is 100% preventable. The hope is always that impaired driving legislation never needs to be used, but having it on the books ensures that those who are guilty are held responsible and deterred from further illegal behavior.
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