

Sean Hughes, Account Director, Connecticut Package Stores Association.
By Sean Hughes
Now that we are about a month past Election Day, it is important to look to the future. Regardless of who voted for who, legislators in the General Assembly look poised again to tackle wrong-way driving deaths and reckless driving. This year is on pace to be the deadliest year on Connecticut’s roadways. Just as 2022 and 2021 set records for the deadliest years at the time, 2023 was only slightly lower in the number of deaths on the road than 2022. As of October, there were 260 individuals that had tragically lost their lives.
In past sessions, there has been a conversation about lowering the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) from .008 to .005. This would be a drastic change that would put Connecticut as only the second state in the nation with that level, with Utah being the only one. The measure has been approved in the past out of the Transportation Committee with bipartisan support, but it has not passed the General Assembly to become law in the last few sessions.
While there will likely be legislation again to lower the BAC in Connecticut, there seems to be a newer technology that could in the future be a mandate on all new cars. Technology continues to grow at extraordinary rates in the modern era.
When looking at motor vehicles, the amount of self-driving assistance in vehicles or even self-driving cars that do not require a human driver are starting to increase on American roads every year. One such innovation is an alcohol-detection system inside of a car that can measure the breath of the driver.
Currently, there are interlock devices that can be placed in a vehicle that lock the car’s ignition until the driver exhales into the machine and proves that they are not intoxicated. These new technology systems measure the area surrounding the driver’s seat. There are sensors that are similar to the ones that are already in existing interlock systems. The only difference is that an individual does not have to blow into the device. The sensors are apparently so effective that they can tell the difference between a sober driver and an intoxicated passenger.
A new study has been released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) that estimates that putting this new alcohol detection in cars across the nation would result in roughly 9,000 lives saved per year. According to the IIHS, nearly 10,000 people are killed annually by drunk drivers. The technology would need to be extremely accurate in terms of the sensors detecting anything over the legal limit of .008.
There is an ongoing public-private partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety. Together, this partnership is attempting to develop this new technology, with the hope of having it installed in every new vehicle in the future.
While safety on Connecticut roadways continues to be an issue in 2024, there will be plenty of discussion had in 2025 on ways to address this increasing trend in roadway deaths. Harnessing technology might be an answer in the future, but it will need buy-in from the public and General Assembly to achieve real results.
If you have questions on industry issues, contact us. The Connecticut Package Stores Association is committed to understanding and mitigating impacts as much as we can and communicating to you how our industry could change.
Find out more about any of these issues and the benefits of membership at ctpsa.com.