According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), approximately 10,000 people die in drinking and driving related crashes every year. In an attempt to reach a goal of zero alcohol and impaired related deaths, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are recommending that states implement laws that will work toward that goal.

• The main recommendation, and the one most likely to meet resistance, is to lower the blood alcohol level from 0.08 to 0.05. The NTSB say that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) should established incentive grants designed to encourage states to adopt the lower threshold. (Approximately 100 countries that have already adopted a 0.05 alcohol content standard or lower, and say that drunken driving was reduced by more than half within 10 years after the standard was dropped.)
• The NTSB is encouraging states to take measures to enforce the use of alcohol ignition interlock devices, ensuring that all convicted drivers actually use the devices and that all suspected drunken drivers whose licenses are confiscated by police be required to install interlocks as a condition of getting their licenses reinstated even if they have not been convicted of drinking and driving.
• The board is pushing for the government to work with the auto industry to encourage research into technology that can detect whether a driver has elevated blood alcohol without the driver actually breathing into a tube. If the drivers levels are too high the vehicle would be unable to start.
• The final recommendation is to expanded the use of passive alcohol devices by police. These devices can be easily carried and can alert police of an intoxicated driver just by coming into close proximity with an intoxicated driver. (These devices can be contained in flash lights or shaped to look like a cellphones.)

The NTSB has no authority to enforce their recommendation. It remains up to states and the Department of Transportation to decide if they want to enforce it.