NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson attorney Matt Bretz, in his capacity as a member of the national board of MADD, visited Washington D.C. to talk to the Kansas delegation about ongoing priorities for MADD. One of those has already passed and is in the process of being implemented. The HALT ACT was signed in 2021.
"HALT is, it was passed a couple of years ago, and it's currently in the rulemaking process," Bretz said. "It requires new automobiles to be equipped with passive technology to detect and prevent drunk and drugged driving. A completely passive equipment, just by sensors in the car, driver sits down, and if it senses either by touch or by breath that you're over 0.08, it won't allow the car to be started. It's different than an interlock."
This technology has been available for a while, and would need to be in new vehicles starting in model year 2026.
"That was passed two years ago as part of the Infrastructure Act, but the rulemaking has gone very slowly," Bretz said. "It's interesting, it's technology that's been around since 2006, but automakers don't want this as OEM equipment. They'd like to sell it as an option that, you know, you paid thousands of dollars extra to get the convenience package that has it. It's much more profitable to automakers to sell it that way than to have it as OEM equipment."
Obviously, MADD wants this as standard, because if people have to pay extra for it, some won't.
"It's stuff that if you have to pay $3,000 or $5,000 extra for an option, many people aren't going to do it, kind of like the backup cameras, which we all have had on new cars since 2014," Bretz said. "It was technology that was around for 10 or more years before then, but it wasn't until 2014, after a doctor backed over his child in the driveway, that there was legislation that required this to be automated in every car. You don't have to do anything with it, you put your car in reverse and automatically the backup camera comes on. It costs $6. But it was equipment that they charged hundreds of dollars for when it was an option."
The deadline for the rule to be finished is November 15.
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