With drunken-driving arrests hitting a nine-year high last year, Hawai'i lawmakers are turning to a device designed to prevent a car from starting unless the driver is sober.

Lawmakers passed legislation this session pushing Hawai'i closer to 42 other states that have used ignition interlocks to keep drunken drivers from getting behind the wheel.

States with ignition-interlock laws have cut repeat drunken-driving offenses by between 50 percent to 95 percent, according to the Hawai'i Department of Health.

The bill has been sent to Gov. Linda Lingle, who has until July 15 to sign it into law, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature.

Under the bill, authored by state Rep. Sharon Har, D-40th (Royal Kunia, Makakilo, Kapolei), anyone arrested for drunken driving for the first time would be required to install an ignition interlock device in their car for a year, at a cost of about $75 a month to the offender, in addition to being put on probation.

Drunken drivers would not lose their license, but would be required to blow into the device, which is wired to the car's starter, to determine sobriety before being able to drive.

"Hawai'i is a place where we don't take drinking and driving seriously," said Har, who was hospitalized in 2007 after a drunken driver hit her car head-on in Kapolei. "We feel this measure will be fully inclusive in dealing with the problem."

There were 4,316 people arrested for drunken driving on O'ahu last year, a nine-year high, and lawmakers and law enforcement officials are hoping the new law, which is scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2010, will help.

HIGH FATALITY RATE

Hawai'i's per-capita fatality rate because of alcohol-related wrecks ranked among the top three in the country for 2006 — prompting the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to increase the state's allotment for anti-drunken driving education and law enforcement efforts from $500,000 to $2.5 million.

Lawmakers hope that the 2010 legislative session will be spent figuring out how to fund the project.

"The consensus was that we need to treat all offenders the same. It's an equal problem. Just because you got caught once doesn't mean it was your first time. We want to make sure that this is a deterrent," said Brennon T. Morioka, director of the state Department of Transportation and chairman of the ignition interlock task force. "The administration and the Legislature are going to have to hammer out (funding) next year. With the budget tight, is this program still a priority? Because we're going to have to find money for it."

Sixty-nine people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2007, almost half of all Hawai'i traffic fatalities.

HOW IT WORKS

Most ignition-interlock devices use a fuel cell to detect alcohol similar to the way breath-testing devices collect evidence in drunken-driving arrests. A person breathes into a handheld device that is connected to the ignition system and the car can start only if the alcohol content in the breath is under a defined level. To help prevent tampering, a digital camera photographs the person taking the test.

The systems, in some cases, retest at random intervals after the vehicle starts. The retests are designed to be done at the roadside to help prevent a sober person from starting the vehicle for another or letting a car idle while alcohol is consumed.

If a person fails a running retest, the vehicle does not stop — the interlock is connected to the starter, not the engine — but the horn may sound and the headlights flash. Those signals alert police that a drunken driver is at the wheel.

The device's vendor would keep data of all offenders using the device. They would track trends such as occasions when a drunken driver tries to start a car and fails because they are not sober.

That information would be sent to the Hawai'i Paroling Authority, the agency that handles individuals on probation.

"They (drunken-driving offenders) can drive anywhere as long as they stay sober," said Carol H. McNamee, a Mothers Against Drunk Driving board member and vice-chair of the ignition interlock committee. "If they get it installed, they don't have to worry or have the guilt (of driving with a revoked license). We really believe this will help drive drunk driving down."

ADDED COSTS

Putting drunken-driving offenders on probation will create the need for more attorneys and more parole officers, a significant cost the state is not sure it can absorb.

"The office of the public defender will have to add attorneys. The judiciary will have to add a significant number of probation officers and support staff. Additional office space may be required to house the probation officers," Timothy Ho, chief deputy public defender, said in testimony submitted to the Legislature.