Drunk driving killed my child. The HALT Law could save yours | Opinion
I remember the day of Alec’s birth so clearly: meeting my son for the first time, holding his tiny baby hands and feet. I remember his demeanor, both easygoing and demanding. And I remember losing him.
Alec was 13 when he was killed by a drunk driver while walking to school in Yuba City. The driver, with blood alcohol content levels three times the legal limit, was driving her own children to school, and left Alec on the side of the road. She was convicted of murder (among other charges) and sentenced to 15 years to life in 2021.
I have felt Alec’s loss every single day since 2019. What’s worse is that I know his death was preventable. Someone made a terrible choice, and my child paid the price. I wish that choice hadn’t been left to her.
That’s why I serve as a National Ambassador for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). It’s why I joined hundreds of victims and survivors at MADD’s 45th anniversary in Washington, D.C., to fight for the full implementation of the Honoring the Abbas Family Legacy to Terminate (HALT) Drunk Driving Law, named for Rana Abbas Taylor’s family — whose only sibling, Rima, her brother-in-law and their three children — were killed by a drunk driver the same year as Alec.
The HALT Drunk Driving Law, championed by Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-MI, Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, was passed with bipartisan support in 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It mandated that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issue safety standards for implementing drunk driving prevention technology in all new cars, which will save more than 10,000 lives every year.
But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration disappointingly missed the deadline for issuing the safety standards in November 2024 — and again in 2025.
The administration’s annual report to Congress revealed the frustrating standoff that inspired victims and survivors to fight for the Congressional mandate: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggested that automakers should voluntarily build anti-drunk driving technology into new cars, while automakers have been reluctant to move ahead without the guidance of a federal safety standard.
The HALT Law is technology-neutral. What we lack is not innovation, but urgency.
After a 17-year partnership between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the auto industry, automakers will soon receive design packages that will allow them to integrate breath-based alcohol detection systems into new cars. This technology measures blood alcohol content with a breath sensor on the steering column and prevents the vehicle from moving if it detects impairment.
Other solutions, such as interior cameras that check the driver’s eye movement for impairment, build on existing driver monitoring systems — and, in many cases, can be implemented as a software upgrade rather than costly new hardware.
Like seatbelts and backup cameras, once adopted across all cars, the cost of anti-drunk driving technology will be minimal, and its lifesaving benefits will be undeniable.
Safety should be prioritized, not sacrificed.
If the car that hit Alec had drunk driving prevention technology, he would still be alive. Instead, I spent his birthday writing this, hoping to prevent another family from feeling this pain.
Drunk driving kills over 12,000 people every year in the U.S. If you knew you could prevent a child from being killed tomorrow, what would you do today? Please learn about the HALT Drunk Driving Law. Call your representatives and demand that they push for its implementation, and vote against any potential rollbacks on lifesaving, anti-drunk driving tech.
Let’s put an end to drunk driving, once and for all.
Tara Repka Flores is a mother, California native and MADD National Ambassador.