Statistics show that McKean County has a serious drunken-driving problem, and area officials say a bill working its way through the state Senate could increase public safety.

Senate Bill 1036 would require first-time drunken driving offenders to breath into a machine before their vehicles would start. The ignition interlock devices are already used for repeat drunken drivers.

The bill would allow convicted drunken drivers to remain on the road. They wouldn’t have to forfeit their driver’s license, but they would use an ignition interlock device. 

“It appears to me that it could increase public safety by requiring ignition interlocks,” state Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, said. Causer called the Senate bill reasonable, but he’d like to study it more in depth.

Greta Billings, a prevention specialist based in Bradford with Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Inc., said the beneficial proposal would help with prevention and education. The device for first-time offenders would also foster responsibility, she said.

“This law will help protect people’s careers,” Billings said.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is pushing for the Senate to pass Bill 1036, saying that it will help save lives in Pennsylvania. If and when the Senate passes the legislation, it would then head to the House of Representatives. 

“Drunk driving deaths are 100 percent preventable and reducing the number of drunk driving fatalities in Pennsylvania begins with strengthening the state’s drunk driving laws,” said MADD national president Jan Withers in a prepared statement. “SB 1036 is the biggest DUI reform bill to cross Senators’ desk since the 0.08 per se legislation became law over a decade ago.”

In 2012, 408 people died in drunk-driving crashes in Pennsylvania, representing 31 percent of traffic accidents in the state, according to information provided by MADD. 

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, drunk driving recidivism has decreased by 67 percent through requiring or highly incentivizing ignition interlocks. Also according to research provided by MADD, 50 to 70 percent of convicted drunk drivers will keep on driving even with a suspended license.

Twenty-two states, including West Virginia and New York state, require ignition interlocks for convicted drunk drivers. What’s more, 16 states have similar laws to the proposed legislation that require interlocks for the first-time offenders with a BAC greater than 0.10 percent.

“Certainly, from my perspective, it’s a good thing,” Causer said.