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New Year’s Eve Will Test Technology’s Capacity to Stop the Young From Drinking and Driving
DENVER — Heather Poli wasn’t quite sure how to react when her friend’s cellphone informed her she was drunk.
The 27-year-old ad-agency worker had been at a bar here with her buddies. It was late; she was about to catch a ride home. Then a friend pulled out an iPhone, and the gang took turns entering their weights and what they had imbibed into an app called R-U-Buzzed?
Bing! Up popped estimates of their blood-alcohol content. Ms. Poli’s designated driver turned out to be hammered. Ms. Poli wanted to take the wheel herself, but to her indignation, the phone told her no: “I got the big red ‘Don’t even think about driving’ result.” Her hangover the next day confirmed the phone’s assessment, she says ruefully. “But at the time, it was very surprising.” Still, she obeyed the phone and called a cab.
State officials hope tens of thousands of her peers will follow suit tonight.
A new iPhone app called R-U-Buzzed aims to help you decide if you’re too drunk to drive. Neil Hickey reports.
New Year’s Eve may mean champagne toasts and midnight kisses to many Americans, but to law enforcement, it means trouble and, too often, tragedy. The nation records an average of 54 alcohol-related traffic fatalities on New Year’s Day. The rest of the year, the average daily toll is 36, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The problem is especially acute among younger drivers. Federal statistics show that 65% of drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes last year were 21 to 34 years old. An additional 17% were under the legal drinking age of 21.
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