Wasted in Wisconsin Interlocks Slash Repeat Owis New Mexico Success Fuels Wisconsin Effort

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Nearly six years ago, New Mexico turned to technology to get tough on drunken driving.

Today, the state's pioneering use of ignition interlocks -- devices that prevent alcohol-impaired drivers from starting their cars -- is credited with significant reductions in drinking-related traffic deaths, injuries and crashes.

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Wasted in Wisconsin Interlocks Slash Repeat Owis New Mexico Success Fuels Wisconsin Effort

"There are a few hundred people walking around that would have been dead if we had the same fatality rate," said Richard Roth, a retired physics professor in New Mexico who has done extensive research on ignition interlocks.

With the strongest interlock law on the books, New Mexico's drunken-driving recidivism rate is down 30% since 2003, helping to make the state a model for curbing impaired driving.

Now, a legislator from West Allis wants to adapt New Mexico's tech-based approach to Wisconsin to help fight one of the country's...

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